The Players’ Tribune (TPT) today announced the successful close of a $40 million Series C financing. The round was led by IVP, a premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firm. Substantial new investments also came from GV, the venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc. and dozens of athletes new to the TPT team. Additional funding came from previous lead investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA), as well as other existing investors, including Thomas Tull, GenTrust and individual athletes.
Founded by Derek Jeter in 2014, The Players’ Tribune has quickly become the destination for premium athlete-generated content. More than 1,200 of the most influential athletes across sports have contributed to the platform through impactful and powerful long- and short-form written features, videos, audio and photography. The new financing will allow TPT to further scale its innovative content offerings, and to expand its video production, sales and editorial operations, while also developing new distribution and revenue opportunities.
“The Players’ Tribune has established a unique position in the sports media landscape,” says Jaymee Messler, president of The Players’ Tribune. “This investment will enable us to test new ways across a variety of platforms to help athletes tell their stories, and to create immersive content that brand and strategic partners want to support. IVP has a strong background in growing tech and media companies, and is passionate about what we are doing at TPT. We’re excited to partner with them. And with athletes making up nearly 20% of this round of financing, it’s a true testament to the strength of the athlete community we’ve built.”
“In a very short time, The Players’ Tribune has grown from an idea into the forum where world class athletes tell their own, authentic stories in their own, genuine voices,” says Eric Liaw, general partner at IVP. “We are thrilled to join Derek, Jaymee and the entire team as they push forward on their mission to build TPT into the worldwide leader in connecting athletes and fans.”
“The Players’ Tribune has become a force in the sports media landscape and is the trusted platform for all athletes’ storytelling,” says Jon Sakoda, general partner at NEA. “This financing marks another major growth milestone, and we’re thrilled to continue to partner with the company and support their impressive trajectory.”
ABOUT THE PLAYERS’ TRIBUNE:
The Players’ Tribune is the first content platform created, curated and controlled by athletes, providing unique insight into the daily sports conversation. Founded by Derek Jeter, The Players’ Tribune publishes first-person content from athletes, bringing fans closer than ever to the games they love. More than 1,200 athletes have contributed to the platform through impactful and powerful long- and short- form stories, video series and podcasts. For more information visit www.theplayerstribune.com, or interact with the team on Facebook (www.facebook.com/theplayerstribune) and Twitter (@playerstribune).
ABOUT IVP:
With $5.4 billion of committed capital, IVP is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 103 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 35-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. IVP investments include such notable companies as AppDynamics, ArcSight (HPQ), Business Insider (Axel Springer), Buddy Media (CRM), ComScore (SCOR), Datalogix (ORCL), Domo, Dropbox, Dropcam (GOOG), Fleetmatics (FLTX), GitHub, HomeAway (AWAY), The Honest Company, Kayak (PCLN), Klarna, LegalZoom, LifeLock (LOCK), Marketo (MKTO), MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), Omniture (ADBE), OnDeck (ONDK), Pure Storage (PSTG), Shazam, Slack, Snap, SoFi, SoundCloud, Supercell (SoftBank), Synchronoss (SNCR), Tanium, Twitter (TWTR), and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit www.ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp.
ABOUT NEA:
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With approximately $17 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm’s long track record of successful investing includes more than 200 portfolio company IPOs and more than 320 acquisitions since its founding in 1977. In the U.S., NEA has offices in Menlo Park, CA; Boston, MA; New York, NY; Chicago, IL; and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.
