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Sports Media Startup Wave.tv Secures USD 32 Million in Series A Round of Financing
ports media company for social media fans, Wave.tv raised USD 32 million in a Series A funding round, comprising both equity and debt financing.
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CIO Applications | Wednesday, July 29, 2020

With the new funding, WAVE.tv will grow the business into a comprehensive sports entertainment company with an eye for the continued category and platform expansion, IP and talent development, eCommerce, acquisitions, sports betting, and more.
FREMONT, CA: Sports media company for social media fans, Wave.tv raised USD 32 million in a Series A funding round, comprising both equity and debt financing. CoVenture and GPS Partners led the investment round with participation from existing investors Golden Ventures and Sweet Capital and new investors. The company's proceeds from the investment round will be used to expand its portfolio of media brands to include underserved fandoms. With the new funding, WAVE.tv will grow the business into a comprehensive sports entertainment company with an eye for the continued category and platform expansion, IP and talent development, eCommerce, acquisitions, sports betting, and more. The company will use the new funds to expand its roster of media brands onto new platforms and launch new media brands in categories of fandom not yet represented in their portfolio.
Wave.tv said it has increased viewership and doubled its monthly revenue since March, partly by focusing on non-mainstream sports and off-the-field videos featuring athletes and fans. "At its core, our business has always been and will continue to be an adaptation of legacy sports media, simply re-imagining the same stories and narratives fans have cared about for generations, into programming best suited for the core and emerging digital platforms where today's fan spends their time," co-founder and CEO Brian Verne said in a statement. "At the next stage of our business we're focused on expanding our portfolio of media brands onto new platforms."
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Wave.tv uses content from 65 sports leagues and organizations to program 18 themed media brands, or fandoms, across platforms such as Snap Inc.'s Snapchat, Facebook Inc.'s Instagram and Bytedance Ltd.'s TikTok. It specializes in posting short bites of under three minutes. "We can tap into the broader amount of sports moments that are happening every day that are not being covered by most sports media," said President Ishaan Sutaria. WAVE.tv was built to entertain digitally native fans with the programming they love, in the places where they spend the most time. The company generates 3.2 billion views while reaching 200 million fans each month.
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