Toronto-founded video network Rumble has begun trading on Nasdaq through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal with CF Acquisition Corp. VI (CFVI).
Former US president Donald Trump joined Rumble last year, after he was banned from most major social media platforms.
Rumble began trading on the Nasdaq today, several days after it completed its merger with CFVI. The deal, which values Rumble at $2.1 billion, was initially announced in December last year.
The transaction provides Rumble with approximately $400 million in gross proceeds, which the company said will be used to attract new content creators to its platform, continue to build out its independent infrastructure, expand its teams, bolster its marketing efforts, finance future acquisitions, and for other general corporate purposes.
Founded in 2013 by Chris Pavlovski, Rumble is a video-sharing platform that is backed by PayPal co-founder and billionaire Peter Thiel. Initially established in Canada, Rumble opened an office in the United States (US), located in Longboat Key, Florida.
Rumble touts its offering as “designed to be immune to cancel culture” with a mission to “restore the Internet to its roots by making it free and open once again.” As YouTube and other mainstream social media networks have started to impose more regulations and moderation over the content published on their platforms, alternative media sites that market themselves as a place for “freedom of speech” have been attracting an increasing number of viewers.
RELATED: Right-wing favoured video platform Rumble secures investment from JD Vance, Peter Thiel
Far-right online shows, such as Red Pill News or the X22 Report, were taken down from YouTube in 2020, for example, but both can still be found on Rumble where their content is regarded as among the most popular.
Former US president Donald Trump joined Rumble last year, after he was banned from most major social media platforms. Rumble also manages ad sales for Trump’s own social media platform, Truth Social, which he created after he was banned from Twitter following the 2021 Capitol riot. The Truth Social platform has hit some snags of late.
In August, Rumble announced that its user base reached a new high, increasing to an average of 44 million average monthly active users. The company said that this represents a 76 percent increase compared to the second quarter of 2021.
