| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Founder(s) | Sam Koppelman Nathaniel Horwitz |
| CEO | Nathaniel Horwitz |
| Key people | Fitzann Reid (Chief Counsel) |
| Industry | Journalism |
| URL | https://hntrbrk.com/ |
| Launched | 2024 |
Hunterbrook is an investigative news outlet, investment firm, and litigation business. It was founded by Sam Koppelman and Nathaniel Horwitz in 2023. [1] Hunterbrook monetizes its reporting through financial trading and litigation. [2]
The company established a newsroom, Hunterbrook Media, and an investment firm, Hunterbrook Capital. It also created a litigation business to partner with law firms on cases enabled by the newsroom's reporting. [3] [4]
Hunterbrook was launched in 2024 by Koppelman, Horwitz, Fitzann Reid, and Emily Pate. Koppelman and Horwitz met at The Harvard Crimson , the undergraduate newspaper of Harvard University, and founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Mayday Health before starting Hunterbrook. [5] [6] [7] Prior to starting Hunterbrook, Horwitz was a venture partner at RA Capital Management and Koppelman was a speechwriter and best-selling author, writing with Neal Katyal and Eric Holder. [8] [9] [10] [11]
The company's name is a portmanteau of Koppelman's middle name, Hunter, after the investigative journalist Hunter S. Thompson, and the last name of Horwitz's mother, the author and war journalist Geraldine Brooks. [5]
Hunterbrook received $10 million in seed funding from David Fialkow, Peter Kolchinsky, Marc Lasry, and Emerson Collective in 2023. [12] [5] In 2025, it raised additional capital from the Ford Foundation and other investors at a $100 million valuation, double that of the seed round. [13] Its board of advisors includes Paul Steiger, William Cohan, Daniel Okrent, Bethany McLean, and Matt Murray. [14] [15]
Hunterbrook has a unique arrangement, in which Hunterbrook Capital trades based on Hunterbrook Media's reporting. Hunterbrook Capital pays the media wing for first access to the articles so it can place trades before articles are published, then "takes both long and short positions on equities, plus invests in other asset classes like commodities and derivatives." [16] [17] Hunterbrook Capital launched with $100 million in April 2024. [18] To avoid regulatory issues, Hunterbrook Media does not rely on inside sources for reporting that Hunterbrook Capital trades on, and discloses positions at the fund related to articles. [12] The Financial Times reported that Hunterbrook's fund generated a 16 per cent return during the first half of 2025. [13]
Axios reported that Hunterbrook Media's areas of emphasis "include environmental and humanitarian stories, healthcare, and coverage from countries that otherwise see very little good reporting at all." [19]
Hunterbrook's first investigation focused on alleged fraud at United Wholesale Mortgage. [18] [20] Based on the same data identified by Hunterbrook, the Ohio Attorney General sued UWM, which also faces a national class action RICO lawsuit by Boies Schiller Flexner on behalf of homebuyers. UWM described the lawsuit as a "sham" and accused Hunterbrook of being behind it. [21] [22]
RV owners sued Winnebago Industries in a class action after Hunterbrook exposed a product defect. [23] [24] Winnebago called Hunterbrook's claims "baseless." [25] [26]
Hunterbrook compiled a report with the International Partnership for Human Rights and the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission revealing that components used to make Russian weaponry and used in attacks against Ukraine originate from American companies. [27] [28]
On June 21, 2025 Hunterbrook broke the news that B-2 stealth bombers had launched from an Air Force base in Missouri, indicating the US would join Israel’s bombardment of Iran. [13] [29] [30]
Hunterbrook's business model has attracted scrutiny. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism called Hunterbrook "one of the most unusual experiments in media ethics." [31] It also said Hunterbrook's "reporting seems very strong, of the same caliber as what you'd find in top national business news outlets." Critics have argued that blurring the lines between reporting and revenue generation potentially violates longstanding journalistic norms. [12]
In May 2024, Hunterbrook generated controversy after Semafor reported that Koppelman had invested in ZBiotics, which Semafor called a competitor to anti-hangover drink Safety Shot, the subject of a Hunterbrook investigation. Koppelman and the founder of ZBiotics argued that Safety Shot was not a competitor. The FDA investigated Safety Shot whose stock fell more than 50% after the company pivoted to buying a meme coin called Bonk. [32] [33] [34]
The Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine proposed that "it could be in Hunterbrook’s long-term interest to invest in some investigations that are not actionable" if "those investigations build up audience and credibility for the news outlet," [35] based on a Newsweek report that "Hunterbrook Media, an open-source investigative news outlet, shared a screenshot of other entities purportedly linked to Drake, adding that the rapper 'also seems to own at least 20 other shell companies.'" [36]
Axios reported "there's certainly no guarantee of success, but the idea is intriguing," and "whether or not Hunterbrook's output is journalism is a mostly theological question." [37]