SINCE FUNKO’S INCEPTION in 1998, the company has grown to become one of the largest licensees in the world. Its limited collectibles have exploded in the consumer products market, resulting in thousands of collectibles, sub-brands and events, as well as lavishly decorated brick-and-mortar stores with immersive experiences. Andrew Perlmutter, chief executive officer, Funko, has helped the brand achieve superstar status in the licensing world for nearly a decade.  

License Global spoke with Perlmutter to learn more about the company’s continued expansion and success. 

License Global: What do you think has allowed Funko to become such a licensing powerhouse? 

Andrew Perlmutter: Funko has always been all about being able to deliver some-thing for every fandom. Since the early days, it’s always been important to us to be on top of pop culture across multiple fandoms and IPs. That’s why we’ve always centered ourselves around making sure that we had more licenses than anybody else. Most companies, unless they grew up doing this like Funko did, find it a very difficult thing to do. Because it’s part of our DNA and we’ve always done it, we consider that one of our competitive advantages. It takes full-time jobs of many people to make sure that we are executing across all the licenses and keeping all our licensing partners happy. I think we do a very good job of that. 

For more of our Q&A with Andrew Perlmutter of Funko, find the May 2022 issue of License Global at LicenseGlobal.com