US-based sports media platform The Athletic, which counts corporates Bertelsmann, Comcast and The Chernin Group as investors, has secured $50m in series D funding, company executives told Axios on Tuesday.
Venture capital firm Bedrock Capital led the round, which included Evolution Media, the investment firm backed by talent agency CAA, in addition to Emerson Collective, Powerhouse Capital, Plus Capital, Founders Fund and Y Combinator. It valued the company at $500m.
Founded in 2016, The Athletic runs a digital media offering that covers football, American Football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, golf, boxing, motorsports and mixed martial arts as well as sports business stories, concentrating on localised coverage.
Earlier rounds funded the recruitment of well known journalists but the series D proceeds will be used to expand the company’s international editorial teams.
The Athletic said it expects to achieve profitability this year as it seeks to enter new markets following its UK launch in 2019. Its expansion into football has allowed it to gain exposure to a variety of overseas readers due to the popularity of the English Premier League.
Alex Mather, co-founder and CEO of The Athletic, told Axios: “We are starting to see that our bundle is very unique. Subscribers can access journalism about different leagues and sports all in one place at a depth that they cannot get anywhere else.”
The round took the company’s total funding to about $120m, including $2.3m in a 2017 seed round led by Courtside Ventures and backed by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investors (BDMI), an investment vehicle for media group Bertelsmann, in addition to Luminari Capital and Advancit Capital.
Unnamed investors added $5.4m before The Athletic raised $20m from Evolution Media, BDMI, over-the-top media company Chernin Group, Courtside Ventures, Luminari Capital, Y Combinator, Advancit Capital, LionTree Partners, Amasia, Precursor Ventures, Chris Silbermann and Ali Rowghani in early 2018.
The round increased The Athletic’s overall funding to $30m and was followed by a $40m series C round co-led by Founders Fund and Bedrock Capital in November the same year, at a reported $200m valuation.
The round included mass media group Comcast’s corporate venturing arm, Comcast Ventures, as well as The Chernin Group, BDMI, Evolution Media, Courtside Ventures, Y Combinator, Advancit Capital, Amasia and Luminari Capital.
