Atomic Features, the production company co-founded by Daniel Ragussis (“Imperium”) and Dennis Lee (“Fireflies in the Garden”), has closed, what it is describing as “a significant” new round of equity financing. The round was led by Fanghua Jiang, Li Jing, and Lanfu Yang.
The company says the new investments will enable it to expand its development slate, adding between four to eight new projects, as well as launch a production fund to finance the first three films it is developing — real-time disaster thriller, “Black Tuesday”; the horror movie, “Breed”; and the dystopian thriller, “The Oasis.”
The company offers a different type of development methodology than the traditional Hollywood model by working with directors from the inception of a project, and relies upon a formalized notes-giving process pioneered by Ragussis in his Notes for Execs workshop, which launched in 2019 and has included participants from such companies as Warner Bros., Universal, Fox and Disney. Atomic’s development fund was first launched and announced in 2024, after an initial round of funding from a consortium of investors led by CXM Enterprises, Davis & Associates, and Pine Valley Investments.
Jiang, a former portfolio investment advisor for high-net-worth individuals at JP Morgan Private Bank, and for non-profit institutions such as the Carnegie Hall Endowment at Paloma Partners, was also a managing director at Global Endowment Management. She helped connect global capital with creative projects. Most recently, she is an executive producer, through her company San Demetrio Arte, on “Rosemead,” which stars Lucy Liu, and a co-executive producer on “Lear Rex,” starring Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain.
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“The Atomic development model of pursuing director-driven projects, backed by the unique methodology Daniel created in his Notes for Execs workshop, was extremely exciting to the investors I represent,” Jiang said in a statement, “and the projects coming out of it are highly appealing to them.”
The new investors include Jing and Yang. As one of China’s most famous TV hosts and personalities, Li is also the founder of Lafaso, which became the largest cosmetics e-commerce site in China. After many years of financing film and television production in China, her investment in Atomic Features represents her entry into the Hollywood feature film market. “After learning about the Atomic development methodology and seeing it in action, I became convinced of the company’s success,” Li said in a statement.
Yang has had a long career in management consulting and strategic planning at companies like Monitors, Capmark Financial Group, and equity investment at Deutsche Bank, but most recently has found success as a novelist, writing “The Stranded,” “Elite Housewives,” and “Oasis of Grace.” “When I heard that a Hollywood company had created a reliable method of screenplay development, it sounded too good to be true,” Yang said in a statement. “But the proof is in the results.”
“We’re beyond thrilled to welcome Fanghua, Jing, Lanfu, and their investor network to our team,” Ragussis said in a statement. “Their vote of confidence in our way of doing business is inspiring, and their support allows us to move our first projects into production and develop a slate for many years to come.”