The 4th Quarter: Latest In Sports Tech This Week, May 10th

Podcasting-Tech Democratizing Media, Private Equity Enters NFL, New Job Board

Sid Balaga & Suraj Peramanu

May 10, 2024

Picture Creds: Here

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I. The Pandemonium of Podcasting-Tech Startups

II. Weekly Startup Spotlight: PocketPod & Wondercraft AI

III. Sports-Tech Market Activity: IPOs, VC, M&A, Deals, Strategic Ventures, Fundraising

IV. Weekly Job Board: Sports, Media, Entertainment, Technology

The Pandemonium of Podcasting-Tech Startups:

Simply put: podcast listenership has been exploding. You don’t need me to tell you that. But this new medium of media consumption is bringing in novel revenue sources into the ecosystem and VCs are throwing money at innovative startups. The legacy radio companies can deny it all they want, but broadcast AM/FM radio is dying in this new Gen Z era; podcasts are emerging from the ashes, as the phoenix. The shift in audio consumer behavior is a very interesting trend to track because of the amount of startup opportunities that are presenting itself.

Take a look at it yourself, I hope this inspires you to either build or invest in the space:

Podcasting has increased to 11% in 2023 up from 2% in 2014 on Share of Time Spent Listening to Audio Sources
- Broadcast AM/FM dropped to 37% from 52% in the same time frame
135M podcast listeners will come from the US alone in 2024 (40% of all internet users)
Advertisers are projected to spend $2.4B on podcasts in 2024, showing 19% YoY growth
- Expected to hit $3B by 2026, accounting for 35% of spend on total audio services
Currently ~5M podcasts in the world, totaling 70M episodes among them
The average podcast listener spends 7 hours per week listening to their favorite content

The audio revolution is at its crest. With venture capitalists (like the All-In Podcast) and firms (like a16z podcast) trying to grow their own presence by launching in-house podcasts channels, some others are investing in startups that are democratizing the art of making them. Below are two of our favorite ones!

Weekly Startup Spotlight

Y-Combinator & ElevenLabs have been early supporters of startups trailblazing in the podcast-tech space, here are two that we’re most bullish on:

PocketPod - What if you only had 15-min to listen to one of your favorite podcasts on your way to work but you can’t choose between the latest sports commentary, the breaking news in UFOs, or what’s been happening in the Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar beef? The solution is here: don’t choose, listen to them all in one tailored piece. Incepted from two Georgia Tech Alums, PocketPod is an AI generated ‘news’ podcast that is hyper-personalized to your interests. Individuals can generate podcasts with their topics of choice and have them published to Spotify every morning. With the digital anchors directly addressing your name, this technology has taken customization to another level. Imagine all of the different topics you can learn about with PocketPod. Check it out for yourself on why we’re as hype as we are!
- Founders: Ross Celafu, Davis Palmie
- Funding: Currently raising at a $15M+ valuation with strong commitments from Y Combinator, ElevenLabsGrants, and an undisclosed set of investors

Wondercraft AI - Instead of a pure direct-to-consumer play, this startup is innovating creative arts through an AI library that users can choose from to build their perfect podcast, ad, or branded content. Out with the old iMovie and old content editing software, and in with the new AI-powered Wondercraft AI. With a tiered structure plan of $0 to $99/month, this company offers three main artificial intelligence products: audio-studio, dubbing, and video generation. This AI audio content pioneer will continue to empower individuals and disrupt legacy audio titans. It’ll be interesting to see if this company makes a bigger B2B push and which audio companies they partner with. The founding team is also extremely strong with two former Palantir engineers and a former executive at Spotify & iHeartMedia.
- Founders: Dimitris Nikolaou, Oskar Serrander, Youssed Rizk
- Funding: Raised a $3M Seed round in 2024 led by Will Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, ElevenLabs, Steven Bartlett, among other angel investors

Sports-Tech Market Activity: Investors & Deals

Venture Capital

Noteefy, a company we’ve previously spotlighted & golf management platform that automates the waitlist process for tee times, raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding (May 7th)
- Investment was led by Phoenix Capital Ventures; other investors include Perot Jain, Keiser family, and the Bitove family [The Golf Wire]
Hexis, an AI-powered athlete enhancement platform personalizing nutrition plans for clients, raised an £1.6M in pre-seed funding (May 8th)
- Strengthening partnerships with professional sports organizations & athletes and expanding its tech capabilities
- Investment was led by APEX and Sport Republic [Tech Funding News]
Iconic Arts, a transmedia entertainment company that develops IP across multiple media platforms, raised $3.1M in pre-seed funding (May 9th)
- Valuing the company at $23.1M post-money valuation
- Investment was led by celebrities such as screenwriter Eric Roth, singer Will.i.am, and others [FinSMEs]
Humanaut Health, a preventative health clinic focused on regenerative & lifestyle medicine, raised $8.7M in seed funding (May 7th)
- Launching its first concierge medicine service and membership-based clinics in the coming year
- Investment was led by The Kabech Fund; other investors include Midnight Venture Partners, the company’s founders, and others [AthleteTech]

M&A and Investments

The NFL is exploring deregulation of institutional investments in NFL teams, easing PE firms’ ability to acquire stake in its franchises (May 7th)
- Exploring stipulations that will require PE firms to form NFL-specific funds in order to acquire up to 30% stake in NFL teams
- NFL is the only major American sports league that bars institutional investor participation [FT]
Shutterstock, a digital media platform specialized in providing stock photography, footage, and editing tools, acquired Envato, an Australian-based company that collects premium digital assets, for $245M (May 6th)
- Expanding offerings and reach in new end markets such as freelancers, hobbyists, and other small businesses that work with Envato
- Adds 10M images, 6M videos, 0.5M templates, etc. from Envato’s content library [FinSMEs]
Pitch International, a leading sports marketing agency, acquired a minority stake in Matchroom Sport, a UK-based sporting event promotion company (May 9th)
- Expands promotional/marketing offerings to new sports such as darts, pool, and boxing [SP]
Everton Fan Advisory Board calls to block the acquisition of its Premier League by 777 Partners
- Concerned over 777 Partners “pattern of fraud” as the PE firm has recently been sued for $600M due to misleading lenders [ECHO]
Peloton, a popular exercise equipment & media platform, is considering going private due to decreasing demand for its products (May 7th)
- Currently working on deleveraging its balance sheet to make it more of an attractive investment for future investors/lenders [AthleteTech]

Photo: Blue Wire builds to its sports podcast network with additions of JR Smith & Cam Newton

Strategic Ventures

League One Volleyball, leading brand in youth volleyball, signed a new media rights deal with ESPN for its new professional volleyball league (May 9th)
- Broadcasting & streaming pro matches on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN+ [ESPN]
Fanatics and the Premier League agree to a licensing deal that will make the leading sports merchandising company the exclusive provider of EPL trading cards/games starting June 2025 (May 8th)
- Replacing long-time competitor Panini as the exclusive EPL partner for trading cards [SportCal]
Oura, a smart ring maker, is launching a new feature that provides Pregnancy & Cycle insights to improve women’s health offerings (May 6th)
- Pregnancy Insights includes tracking gestational age and weekly updates about any physiological changes
- Cycle Insights providers users additional information on their menstrual cycles [AthleteTech]
Blue Wire, a leading sports podcast network, will add JR Smith, Cam Newton, and other famous athletes to their content portfolio (May 7th)
- Growing its content offerings by adding unique content creators that cover a vast range of sporting topics [BSM]
Reebok partners with Futureverse, an AI-driven metaverse platform, to launch Reebok Impact, a fashion experience that allows users to personalize digital sneakers (May 9th)
- Crafting a custom sneaker in the colors/styles based on the photo memories that sneakers fans send Reebok Impact via Instagram [VB]
Dragon Seats, a leading manufacturer of heated and cooling benches for sporting events, partnered with Kinematic Company, a sports equipment manufacturer, to launch a new sideline shade system Dragon ShadER (May 7th)
- New product is a proprietary adjustable overhead shade system used for weather protection for athletes [PRN]
The Sphere Las Vegas will host the 2024 NHL Draft this June (May 7th)
- First sports event and TV broadcasted hosted in the arena [NHL]

Fundraising

Private Equity Sixth Street is looking to raise its first sports-focused fund
- Previous investments in sports/media/entertainment include investments in Real Madrid club activities, Barcelona’s LaLiga Broadcasting Rights, and a minority stake in the San Antonio Spurs [SP]