All hail the new content creators, who are turning traditional sports and esports media on its head. Minute Media has raised $17 million in funding for its digital publishing platform for both sports and esports.
The New York-based Minute Media has now raised $77 million to date. The round’s investors include Goldman Sachs, as well as existing investors such as Battery Ventures.
Minute Media operates three sports media brands powered by its proprietary technology platform, including 90min, the world’s leading global football publisher; DBLTAP, the esports brand focused on stories beyond the stage; and 12up, the U.S. sports brand at the intersection of sports and pop culture. Combined, Minute Media’s properties reach more than 80 million monthly owned and operated unique users and offer original content in 12 different languages.
Minute Media has created a digital publishing platform that empowers fans to create, publish, share and distribute thousands of pieces of content each day around the world.
By enabling this new breed of fan, who is both the consumer and content creator, to become the voice behind their teams, the company said it has introduced a new perspective that goes beyond the traditional sports newsroom and its capabilities.
Minute Media uses this proprietary technology and digital product platform to drive content and media solutions for its own properties in addition to the licensing of the full stack to other publishers and digital brands, allowing them to easily create and distribute content at scale. This has resulted in partnerships with dozens of third party publishers and brands including Sports Illustrated, USA Today Sports Media Group, MSN, ProSieben, and Horizon Media.
“Unlike many others, our tech driven approach to publishing has been key to our growth during such challenging times in digital publishing.” said Asaf Peled, the CEO of Minute Media, in a statement. “We are clearly cemented at the intersection of platforms, publishers and communities. Our new and existing capital structure enables us to leverage this differentiated focus to efficiently scale into new markets and content verticals.”
The company’s revenue increased 130 percent from 2016 to 2017, driven by a substantial investment into technology diversification and the launch of several mobile web product solutions and that upward trend is expected to continue in 2018.
“The team at Minute Media is rewriting the playbook for sports media,” said Aaron Siegel, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs. “Their focus on product, fan empowerment and global scale are key differentiating ingredients in the sector. We look forward to being a part of the continued growth.”
Minute Media currently employs 180 people in markets including New York, Los Angeles, London, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Tokyo, Manila and Sao Paolo.
Besides Goldman Sachs, the new investors include La Maison, Vintage Investment Partners, Remagine Ventures and Kreos Capital. The existing investors include Battery Ventures, Dawn Capital, Gemini Israel Ventures, North Base Media, ProSieben and Qumra Capital.
