Entertainment industry veteran Thai Randolph has taken the wraps off her new venture: NILE & Co., described as a content and commerce platform that works with “creators who move culture.”

Randolph is the former CEO and co-founder of Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat, which she exited in 2023. She is the founder and CEO of NILE & Co. (which stands for “Narrative, Influence, Legacy, Enterprise”). According to the company, it operates a brand and IP platform with a content-to-commerce model targeting women through its owned channels alongside trusted creators and athletes.

At launch, NILE & Co. owns two properties: As/Is and Goodful, both acquired from BuzzFeed. In its 2025 annual report, BuzzFeed said it had sold both brands for $500,000 (at a loss of $800,000). NILE & Co. says those are the first of several acquisitions to be announced in the coming months.

As/Is, which has over 15 million followers, originally launched as a body-positivity platform. Under NILE & Co., it is being repositioned as a “whole-life platform for high-performing women,” including athletes, entrepreneurs and executives “who are done accepting the terms as written.” Goodful, with more than 25 million followers, is evolving into a “wellness-to-wealth platform for women who invest in themselves.” Both brands will be relaunched in the summer of 2026 with new brand identities, business models, and creator and commercial partnerships, the company said.

In addition to the deal for As/Is and Goodful, NILE & Co. inked a commercial partnership for BuzzFeed’s Cocoa Butter, Pero Like and A*Pop brands, which reach multicultural audiences across Black, Latino and Asian American communities. Together, the NILE & Co. portfolio reaches more than 50 million consumers (predominantly women 25-45).

“I’ve spent my career building brands and scaling businesses alongside some of the most influential creators and commercial partners in the world,” Randolph said in announcing NILE & Co. “What I’ve learned is that narrative and influence are two of the biggest accelerants in modern brand building — and women are now in the driver’s seat. They control the majority of purchasing decisions, sit at the center of the largest wealth transfer in modern history, and are reshaping how capital, culture, and commerce move. Naturally, our first investment is in her.”

NILE & Co. says it operates based on three core strategies: build (to co-found new companies with creators and athletes as equity partners); buy (to acquire brands with loyal audiences and cultural resonance and rebuild them into multiplatform businesses with modern revenue models and expanded distribution); and partner (to work with IP owners, creators and companies as a hands-on operating and commercialization partner).

“We look for brands with demonstrable audience affinity, valuable IP, and clear headroom to become something bigger,” Randolph said. As/Is and Goodful have that foundation, she said: “They built trust with a highly engaged audience and became part of how she lives and sees herself. Now we’re building their next chapter to meet her where she is today — ambitious, wealth-building, investing in her health with intention, and defining performance and pleasure on her own terms.”

Joining Randolph as NILE & Co.’s founding partners are: Manveer (Monti) Sehmi, CFO (formerly Hartbeat, FastPay, Ernst & Young); Heather Johns, head of content and creator partnerships (formerly Paramount/Viacom, Lionsgate, UTA); Melinda Lee, operating partner and adviser (formerly BuzzFeed, Meredith, Hearst), whose relationships were instrumental in originating the As/Is and Goodful acquisitions; and Ahmad Barber, operating partner and creative director (who has worked with companies including Nike, HBO, Netflix, Apple and Google).

Corey Martin, managing partner and chair of the entertainment finance practice at Granderson Des Rochers LLP, served as legal counsel to NILE & Co. Hilco Corporate Finance and Loop Capital served as financial advisers.

Randolph spent seven years at Hartbeat, building it from a production studio into a multifaceted media company. At Hartbeat, she led a $100 million capital raise from private-equity firm Abry Partners — one of the largest funding rounds ever secured by a Black woman for a private company. She is a board member of LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells creative studio.