Seattle, WA – April 21, 2016 – Fexy today announced its acquisition of Simply Recipes, the popular, award-winning cooking and recipe blog founded by Elise Bauer. Currently the highest indexing cooking site for women, aged 21-49 (comScore, November 20151), Simply Recipes joins Fexy’s expanding food-focused brand portfolio, propelling it to become one of the top 10 food and lifestyle-based digital media companies. Fexy’s portfolio also includes: Serious Eats, Roadfood, The Food Lab, and Relish. This is the sixth acquisition for Fexy since its formation in late 2014.
Simply Recipes was established in 2003 and quickly grew into one of the most highly trafficked online resources for home cooks interested in quality scratch cooking. The site reached 6.5 million unique monthly visitors in November 2015 (comScore). In response to a growing trend among millennials to search for the “best recipes” in their favorite food categories (Google Trends, 2014 and 2015), Simply Recipes focuses on inspired, well-tested recipes that help home cooks be successful in the kitchen. The blog effectively uses social media to reach audiences looking to find consistently great recipes and learn new cooking skills.
“Simply Recipes started as a way to document and share our family’s favorite recipes and has become a trusted resource for millions of people around the world who love to cook,” stated Elise Bauer, Simply Recipes Founder. “Being part of Fexy will help us reach even more people who share our passion for home cooking.”
Fexy, formed by co-CEOs Cliff and Lisa Sharples, and CFO Ben Sternberg, continues to expand its portfolio with brands that address the specific needs of the millennial foodie generation:
- Simply Recipes inspires home cooks with well-crafted recipes using in-season whole food ingredients and scratch-cooking methods.
- Serious Eats is the source for discerning eaters featuring inspirational content about dining out, food experiences, the science behind food and cooking.
- Roadfood is a mobile resource for food lovers to explore regional culture through local dishes they eat along highways, in cities, and tucked away in small towns.
- Relish allows readers to discover the recipes America loves and is cooking right now.
“We are very deliberate about our acquisition strategy as we build a complementary portfolio of food-focused brands,” said Cliff Sharples, co-CEO Fexy. “Simply Recipes is the cornerstone site from which we are going to expand the Fexy network’s recipe content strategy. We are thrilled to have Elise join the Fexy family, partnering with our growing talent across the portfolio and utilizing resources at Fexy Studios and Labs to help realize the brand’s full potential.”
About Fexy
Fexy was founded in Mercer Island, Washington in 2014 by digital media veterans Cliff and Lisa Sharples and investment professional, Ben Sternberg with private equity backing by Tritium Partners. Fexy includes a brand portfolio focused on digital experiences for millennials spanning today’s food culture, including recipes, cooking how-to resources, travel experiences and restaurant discoveries, with over 13 million monthly unique visitors. Fexy includes Fexy Brands—Simply Recipes, Serious Eats, The Food Lab, Roadfood, and Relish; Fexy Studios—a digital video production studio focused on creating and distributing expert-driven content; and Fexy Labs—offering proprietary technology, marketing analytics, industry-leading insights and measurement solutions for Fexy’s brands and advertising partners. For additional information on Fexy, visit: http://www.fexy.com/
About Simply Recipes
Elise Bauer started Simply Recipes in 2003 after having spent over 15 years in Silicon Valley as a strategy and marketing consultant and Internet startup executive. Under her guidance, Simply Recipes grew to become one of the most respected food blogs in the country and is now the #1 cooking blog for women 25-49. The site began in her parent’s kitchen in Carmichael, California as a family recipe blog focused on sharing well-crafted scratch cooking recipes for the home cook. Simply Recipes now has over five million unique visitors per month. Bauer is a founding officer of the Sacramento California chapter of Les Dames d’ Escoffier International, a philanthropic society of women culinary professionals, and a founding board member of the Food Literacy Center, a non-profit delivering after school food education programs to elementary school children. Bauer has a B.S., M.B.A, and Masters in Food Research from Stanford University.
1Indexes higher for W21-49 than the top 10 Food-Lifestyles domains per comScore Multi-Platform November 2015.
