Arsenic

What Arsenic does

Arsenic, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based, founder-led lifestyle and culture media company founded in 2014 by Amanda Micallef and Billy Hawkins. The company operates a community-driven platform connecting models, music artists, visual artists, and fans, distributed primarily through three Instagram accounts (@arsenic, @arsenicgallery, @arsenicaudio) with a stated collective reach of over 40 million people. The product portfolio centers on the Arsenic brand platform, supported by Arsenic House (an influencer hub sub-brand), Arsenic Chronicles (an email newsletter), and an open submission portal that lets creators contribute visual art, photography, and music for editorial featuring. The website is built on Squarespace, and the company does not disclose proprietary technology, AI/ML capabilities, or APIs.

Arsenic monetizes through advertising and brand partnerships managed via a partner/advertise inquiry channel. No public pricing, advertiser rate cards, or disclosed brand-advertiser contracts appear in the available data. Strategic partnerships include Atlantic Records (the only partner labeled "core"), Guy Hepner Art Gallery, and high-visibility creator collaborations with Diplo, Skrillex, Yasiel Puig, and Kaleigh Gilchrist. The company has raised at least $3,000,000 in disclosed funding across three rounds (2015, 2016, 2018) from Outlander Fund I Archimedes, Wavemaker Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, and BAM Ventures, with no disclosed institutional lead investor beyond 2018.

The company is privately held, founder-owned with no parent company, no subsidiaries, and no disclosed venture or PE backing beyond the rounds above. Operating geography is centered in California, USA, with global audience reach via social platforms. The legal entity is Arsenic, Inc., governed under California law, with effective Terms & Conditions dated July 16, 2016.

Name

Arsenic

Legal name

Arsenic, Inc.

Website

https://arsenic.agency

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Arsenic is a Los Angeles-based, community-driven lifestyle media company founded in 2014 that connects models, artists, and creators through Instagram sub-brands and a newsletter, reaching a stated 40M+ audience and monetizing via advertising and brand partnerships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Lifestyle Media

akta.pro primary industry

Community Management & Creator Community Building (MPAAAHAH)

Keywords

• Lifestyle media platform
• Community content brand
• Influencer marketing
• Brand partnership advertising
• Creator community publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

Los Angeles

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Advertising and Brand Partnerships: Arsenic generates revenue through advertising partnerships and brand collaborations. The company operates as a lifestyle media platform that enables brands to reach its large audience of 40+ million followers across social media channels.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Arsenic is a community-driven lifestyle and culture media brand that curates and publishes content celebrating female models, music artists, and visual artists through Instagram channels, an email newsletter, and an influencer hub called Arsenic House. The company monetizes its more than 40-million-person community reach by selling advertising and brand partnership opportunities through a Partner/Advertise program.

Product overview

Arsenic is a single unified lifestyle media platform — a community collective connecting models, music artists, visual artists, and fans. The core offering consists of the Arsenic brand platform supplemented by Arsenic House (influencer hub), Arsenic Chronicles (email newsletter), and multiple Instagram sub-brands (@arsenic, @arsenicgallery, @arsenicaudio) that serve different content verticals while sharing the same community vision of sexual empowerment and breaking traditional media rules.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Arsenic House: A hub for influencers within the Arsenic community.

Products and services

• Arsenic Community Media Brand A female-driven lifestyle and culture media brand and community connecting models, music artists, visual artists, and fans, distributed through Instagram channels, the Arsenic Chronicles newsletter, and the Arsenic House influencer hub, reaching over 40 million people.
• Arsenic Partner/Advertise Program Advertising and brand partnership offering that lets brands and advertisers contract campaigns against Arsenic's 40+ million-person community across its Instagram channels and influencer network.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• DiplominorGTM or Marketing PartnerMusic artist collaborator featured on Arsenic's platform as part of their music lifestyle content
• SkrillexminorGTM or Marketing PartnerMusic artist collaborator featured on Arsenic's platform as part of their music lifestyle content
• Atlantic RecordscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor record label partnership for music-related content and artist collaborations within the Arsenic community
• Guy Hepner Art GalleryminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerArt gallery collaboration for visual art content and artist features within the Arsenic community
• Yasiel PuigminorGTM or Marketing PartnerLA Dodgers athlete featured in Arsenic content for cross-industry collaboration
• Kaleigh GilchristminorGTM or Marketing PartnerOlympic Gold Medalist featured in Arsenic content for athlete collaboration

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Galore Media: Female-driven lifestyle and culture digital publication that shares Arsenic's empowerment-focused editorial positioning and creator-community model. Highly comparable in target audience, content verticals, and advertising-led business model.
• Paper Magazine: Independent culture and lifestyle publication with a strong social-media presence covering fashion, music, art, and celebrity. Comparable to Arsenic in editorial voice, community-driven creative coverage, and digital-first distribution.
• i-D Magazine: Long-running fashion and culture magazine known for championing emerging talent and subcultures. Comparable to Arsenic in its creator-discovery ethos and social-first visual storytelling, though at much larger scale and as a Vice-owned brand.
• Highsnobiety: Lifestyle media platform covering culture, music, fashion, and art with strong Instagram-led distribution. Comparable GTM motion (Instagram-first, community submissions, brand partnerships) and overlapping audience in the millennial culture space.
• Ones to Watch: Music-discovery platform surfacing emerging artists via editorial features and social content. Comparable to Arsenic's @arsenicaudio vertical in mission and creator-first, social-led distribution model.

Emerging players

• HypeHouse: Creator collective and influencer hub operating from Los Angeles with a community-driven, social-first model. Comparable in the creator-community-building mechanic, though HypeHouse leans more into TikTok and talent-management than Arsenic's editorial-magazine positioning.

Broad incumbents

• Complex Networks: Established digital media company covering music, fashion, pop culture, and food at scale. Comparable to Arsenic in content verticals and brand-partnership revenue model, but operates as a much larger incumbent with dedicated editorial, video, and commerce arms.
• Jellysmack: Creator-economy media company that helps creators distribute and monetize video content across platforms. Comparable in addressing the creator-monetization problem Arsenic solves, but at a vastly larger scale with proprietary tech and global operations.
• DAZED Media: Independent fashion and culture magazine with strong photography, youth culture, and subculture editorial. Comparable to Arsenic in audience and editorial sensibility, though DAZED operates at a larger international scale and offers more established commerce partnerships.

Others

• Urban Outfitters (UO Community / UO Live): Major youth-lifestyle retailer that runs creator and editorial programs targeting the same millennial, culture-first demographic as Arsenic. Comparable as an adjacent brand that monetizes the same community archetype, but through commerce rather than media.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/arsenic
• Xx.com/arsenicmagazine
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/arsenic-magazine

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Arsenic