US-based entertainment promoter Drone Racing League (DRL) has raised $12m from investors including Hearst Ventures and CAA Ventures, the strategic investment subsidiaries of media group Hearst and talent agency Creative Artists Agency.
Venture capital firms RSE Ventures and Lux Capital co-led the round, which also featured Courtside Ventures, Sierra Maya Ventures and angel investors including Matt Bellamy, lead singer of the band Muse.
Founded in 2015, DRL puts on drone racing tournaments in which participants pilot unmanned aerial vehicles using goggles that allow them to fly them remotely from a first-person perspective.
The funding was announced alongside news that DRL has struck deals for its 2016 season with broadcasters ESPN, which will show it in North, South and Central America, and the Caribbean; Sky, which will cover UK and Ireland; and 7Sports, a division of Germany-based media group ProSiebenSat.1.
Sky invested $1m as part of a deal that will grant it the rights to broadcast 10 one-hour episodes covering DRL events in the UK on its Sky Sports channels, but the company did not reveal whether the cash made up part of the equity round.
Nicholas Horbaczewski, DRL’s founder, said: “Having a distribution deal and strategic partnerships with Sky will bring DRL to tens of millions of viewers.
“With their expertise and our industry leading technology, media production and development of the best competitive racing, we believe we can truly grow a global franchise around this futuristic, high-speed racing sport.”
– Photo courtesy of Drone Racing League