TelevisaUnivision and Sinclair are backing a new $50 million “media-for-equity” fund from Mercurius Media Capital, the firm’s founding partner Piyush Puri exclusively tells Axios.

Why it matters: The media-for-equity model has been gaining prevalence overseas but is seldom used in the U.S.

How it works: Media for equity, also known as media capital, offers startups advertising space in exchange for equity, rather than cash.

Sinclair and TelevisaUnivision have together committed around $50 million in media space, but no cash has exchanged hands. The media investment from the two is over a five-year period.

“The companies come to us and say, ‘We want to spend this $1 million, let’s say, in Sinclair broadcast.’ We will then go back to Sinclair broadcast and say, ‘Tell us what it is that you can do best within this $1 million for this company,'” Puri explains.

Zoom in: MMC is looking at companies past their Series A round that “have a functional product or functional service” and can handle a potentially large influx of customers.

They must be consumer-facing, since the model is based on advertising. Puri says they’ve looked at companies in the gaming, health care and lifestyle space.

“Our investment thesis is also dictated by who are the media partners that [they] currently have on board, because you want to make sure you’re not making a forced fit of finding a really good startup but then trying to apply to a media company that really won’t have the consumers for that,” Puri says.

What’s next: The fund is open-ended. MMC is talking to additional media partners and aims to secure more than $100 million in commitments by 2025.