Mubi lost subscribers after VC deal
Social reporting says Mubi lost more than 200,000 subscribers after taking a $100 million investment from Sequoia Capital, prompting backlash in the indie film community over the investor’s ties. The episode surfaced as an example of how alternative financing can create reputational and subscriber risks for specialty platforms. (x.com)
Mubi lost more than 200,000 subscribers in 2025 after taking a $100 million investment from Sequoia Capital, according to accounts from Chief Executive Efe Cakarel and reporting published April 11 and April 12. (variety.com) By the end of 2025, Mubi had nearly 1.2 million subscribers, down from a spring 2025 peak of 1.44 million and far short of an internal goal of 2 million. The company also lost $7.3 million on about $200 million in revenue, according to the Wall Street Journal account cited by Variety and IndieWire. (variety.com, indiewire.com) Sequoia led the financing round that valued Mubi at $1 billion, while existing investor Summit Partners said it remained the company’s largest institutional shareholder. Mubi said the money would fund content acquisition, original productions, brand-building and mergers and acquisitions. (summitpartners.com) The backlash centered on Sequoia’s investments in defense technology companies including Kela Technologies, which critics tied to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Variety reported in August 2025 that Mubi had been under fire since securing the investment in May 2025. (variety.com) In July 2025, filmmakers including Radu Jude, Sarah Friedland, Joshua Oppenheimer and Aki Kaurismäki signed a letter urging Mubi to reconsider the Sequoia relationship. Deadline reported that the letter argued Mubi’s growth had been brought into alliance with a firm invested in Israeli military technology, while Israel denied genocide accusations as “baseless.” (deadline.com) Cakarel answered the criticism in an August 14, 2025 letter to the film community. He said Mubi’s profits do not fund other Sequoia portfolio companies, that Shaun Maguire was not a partner in the funds that invested in Mubi, and that “any suggestion” Mubi’s work was connected to funding the war was “simply untrue.” (variety.com) The subscriber slide landed just as Mubi was trying to turn festival prestige into a bigger film business. In 2024, it bought “The Substance” for $12 million, and Variety reported the film grossed $77 million and helped push subscriptions to a then-record 1.44 million in spring 2025. (variety.com) The company then spent $24 million to acquire Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love,” which Variety said grossed $12 million worldwide. Mubi also cut about a dozen roles in December 2025 and reorganized its content leadership after offering three months of salary to employees who chose to leave over the controversy, according to reports citing the Wall Street Journal. (variety.com, indiewire.com) By April 2026, Cakarel said the damage had not fully cleared. He told the Wall Street Journal that “losing subscribers and growth slowing down” had been real, while also saying Mubi had reached a record 1.7 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2026 and still wanted Sequoia’s backing to keep financing films. (variety.com)
