XYZ Films Unveil $100M Genre War Chest

The capital boost enables XYZ — which has produced movies including the Nicolas Cage cult hit 'Mandy' — to fully finance or co-finance what the company describes as the "filmmaker-driven independent genre fare on which it has built its brand."

Genre specialists XYZ Films has raised about $100 million to fund a slate of 15 to 20 titles cofinanced by Finnish venture capital company IPR.VC.

The capital boost enables XYZ — which has produced movies including the Nicolas Cage cult hit Mandy and backed Gareth Evans’ martial arts breakouts The Raid and The Raid 2 — to fully finance or co-finance what the company describes as the "filmmaker- driven independent genre fare on which it has built its brand."

The move is the latest in a series of expansions at the 11-year-old production and sales banner founded by Nate Bolotin, Nick Spicer and Aram Tertzakian. This year, it branched out into talent management, created a documentary division and hired sales veteran and former Global Road executive Tatyana Joffe as its president of international sales and distribution.

"Our model has always been making responsibly budgeted films from filmmakers we want to support," XYZ said in an announcement. "With funding from IPR, we can now be a one-stop shop for production, distribution and financing."

IPR.VC is a Helsinki-based venture capital fund investing in the media and entertainment sectors with a focus on intellectual property.

"XYZ’s bold vision and talentfocused approach make them the perfect partner to launch IPR.VC’s second M&E fund," said managing partner Timo Argillander. "We look forward to our continued collaboration with XYZ’s outstanding team to create another successful venture for our investors."

The deal was negotiated by XYZ’s Maxime Cottray and IPR.VC’s Elisa Alvares. XYZ’s most recent films include Synchronic, starring Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan; the Cage cosmic thriller Color out of Space; and the sci-fi flick Stowaway, starring Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette.

This story first appeared in The Hollywood Reporter's Nov. 7 daily issue at the American Film Market.