seriouseats11
Food site Serious Eats is now in the portfolio of Seattle media company Fexy

Lisa Sharples spent six years as the head honcho at Allrecipes, leading the Seattle company to prominence in the online recipe space, not to mention a $175 million acquisition by publishing giant Meredith in 2012.

Now, the digital media executive is jumping back into the kitchen, so to speak.

Sharples, along with her husband Cliff, are leading a new digital video media company by the name of Fexy Media that just acquired popular food sites Serious Eats — founded by former New York Times contributor Ed Levine — and Roadfood — founded by New York Times best-selling authors and James Beard Award winners Jane and Michael Stern.

Cliff Sharples
Cliff Sharples

“Lisa and I are thrilled to work with Serious Eats and Roadfood, inspired by the awards and accolades both have received—including 5 James Beard Awards—and excited about the opportunities Fexy can offer to our advertisers and content partners,” said co-CEO Cliff Sharples in a press release.

Levine said he was attracted to Fexy because it allowed the site to invest more in digital video, and because it “offered our brand a tremendous amount of synergy and opportunity for partnerships with the other portfolio companies.”

Fexy was founded in 2014 as an online media acquisition firm, with the company saying that its brand portfolio focuses on “digital video for millennials spanning the food, lifestyle, finance, health and parenting categories.” It already claims more than 10 million monthly unique visitors, with other brands such as Relish, Monkeysee, Smarty Cents and DailyParent.

Lisa Sharples
Lisa Sharples

Fexy appears to be the new name of Teneology, which we reported on last year when Cliff Sharples and Ben Sternberg announced a $10 million round led by Tritium Partners of Austin, Texas. Fexy said it has acquired five companies to date, and it has raised $40 million to date.

Sharples co-founded Austin-based Garden.com in 1995 with Lisa — taking the company public in 1999. He then later joined Home Away, and served as COO at Cheezburger.

Interestingly, the acquisition news comes as another iconic Seattle food and restaurant brand disappears. On Monday, Zomato announced that it was shutting down Urbanspoon, the one-time popular restaurant directory that allowed users to find a restaurant with the shake of the phone.

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