There's glimpses of this out there. Leon Neyfakh created the podcast Slow Burn while working for slate. But he wanted to make a second podcast called Fiasco, but Slate wasn't on board with it or Leon was tired of slate or something and Leo had to do it on his own. But the problem was, Leo didn't have the funds to quit his job at Slate and make Fiasco. This would be a very heavily reported podcast, traveling, interviews, research, editor, producers etc are all needed. So Luminary got in contact with Leo, and funded the whole thing. Gave Leo enough money to make Fiasco with the condition that Luminary has an exclusive on the show. So there's an example of how a company gave Leo the funding to make it happen and is possibly getting back that money somehow.