US-based sports media platform The Athletic has secured $40m in series C funding from investors including digital media company The Chernin Group, media firm Bertelsmann and mass media group Comcast, Axios has reported.
Founders Fund and Bedrock Capital co-led the round, which also featured Evolution Media Capital, the investment firm backed by talent agency CAA and film studio Participant Media, as well as Courtside Ventures, Y Combinator, Advancit, Amasia and Luminari.
Bloomberg and Comcast participated through respective subsidiaries Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI) and Comcast Ventures. The round valued the company at about $200m, sources told Axios, and boosted its total funding to $70m.
The Athletic operates an online sports media platform that generates revenue through subscriptions and which aims to provide in-depth reporting from a pool of writers that includes beat reporters in 47 local markets in the US and Canada, up from 12 at the start of 2018.
The company has 100,000 subscribers,and the series C capital will go to expanding the company’s audience, data and editorial teams and establishing video and podcast teams, co-founder Alex Mather told Axios.
Evolution Media led The Athletic’s $20m series B round in March this year, investing alongside BDMI, Chernin Group, Courtside Ventures, Luminari Capital, Advancit Capital, Amasia, Y Combinator, Precursor Ventures, LionTree Partners, Chris Silbermann and Ali Rowghani.
BDMI, Courtside Ventures, Luminari Capital and Advancit Capital had previously teamed up to provide $2.3m for the company in a January 2017 seed round that was followed by $5.4m from undisclosed investors in July the same year.
