Minute Media is poised to hunt for more acquisition targets in sports and entertainment digital media after raising a fresh round of $40 million in venture-capital funding.
The New York-based company in January acquired sports property FanSided (which had been part of Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated group) from Meredith Corp. for a reported $15 million. That came a month after its deal to buy Derek Jeter’s The Players’ Tribune, focused on content from pro athletes. In other rollups, Minute Media had previously acquired Gannett’s The Big Lead and Mental Floss.
The new funding “will help us invest in our technology platform and enable us to look at new digital brands as acquisition targets,” Asaf Peled (pictured above), founder and CEO of Minute Media, said in a statement. “We are grateful to have the confidence of industry-leading investors to support our vision of building digital publishers rooted in strong technology.”
The funding brings Minute Media’s total funding to $160 million raised to date. The new round gives it a valuation of over $500 million, Axios reported. The 370-employee company says it’s on track to generate $200 million in revenue this year, after doubling sales in 2019.
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Later this year, Minute Media said, it will release “enhanced technology platform offerings” to fuel growth, efficiency and innovation across its portfolio of seven digital destinations and those of publishing partner sites.
The latest round of funding in Minute Media was led by VC firm Dawn Capital with participation from existing investors, which include Battery Ventures, Goldman Sachs, ProSieben, Dawn Capital, Qumra Capital, Vintage Investments, Gemini Ventures, North Base Media, La Maison, Remagine Ventures, Hamilton Lane and Maor Investments.
Founded in 2011 in Israel, Minute Media originally launched 90min, a site dedicated to global soccer news. Currently, Minute Media’s owned-and-operated digital media publications are 90min, DBLTAP, 12up, Mental Floss, The Big Lead, The Players’ Tribune and FanSided.