WSC Sports, a B2B sports video company, raised $100M in a Series D funding round, led by ION Crossover Partners, to expand into new verticals and countries.
Why is this important: The Israel-based company’s growth reflects the changes that are rapidly disrupting the sports media industry.
- WSC Sports licenses artificial intelligence software to media companies and sports leagues that cut video clips of live sporting events and distribute them in real time.
- Current customers include the NBA, NHL, NASCAR and MLS as well as ESPN, YouTube TV, Tencent and Bleacher Report media players.
Details: The new funding will be used to recruit more than 150 new employees this year and develop products adjacent to the sports video work he currently manages, said WSC Sports CEO and co-founder Daniel Shichman.
- “Because of cord cutting and habits, some media rights holders go direct to consumers and have to be a lot smarter with OTTs, sports betting, NFTs,” Shichman told Axios.
- ION Crossover Partners has a long history of supporting Israeli-based companies in the media and technology sectors, including Taboola, Innovid, SimilarWeb and Fiverr.
By the numbers: The company did not disclose its latest valuation, but Shichman says its annual revenue is in the “tens of millions”.
- With this round, WSC Sports has now raised a total of $149 million. In addition to lead investor ION, existing investors Intel Capital, OG Tech and Detroit Venture Partners (Dan Gilbert) also participated in Series D. Intel, OG and Detroit have all participated in the company’s Series C, per Crunchbase.
- The company has around 260 employees across offices in Israel, where it is headquartered in New York, Sydney and London.
The bottom line: “The fact that you can generate any type of content and target it in real time is really powerful,” Shichman said.
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