New Delhi-based India Sports Flashes Pvt. Ltd, which operates sports content app Sports Flashes, has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Vikas Bajaj, joint managing director, Bajaj Motors Ltd, and Amit Kharbanda, founder, MyBox Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a top executive told VCCircle.
The firm will use the funding primarily for marketing and to expand its team and domestic operations, said Raman Raheja, co-founder, Sports Flashes.
The funding round has been facilitated by Anup Kalra, founder of startup consulting firm Ambit B2B, he said.
Sports Flashes offers sports TV, live scores, streaming videos, news, views, highlights, statistics, live updates and commentary. The app, which is available on both Android and iOS, has formed streaming partnerships with 13 international sports associations and bodies.The company was founded in August 2016 by Raheja and Keshaw Sinha. Raheja is an entertainment and sports professional with more than 20 years of experience. He has been associated with Commonwealth Games, World Kabaddi League, International Indian Film Academy Awards and Indian Premier League, among others. Sinha comes with over 20 years of experience in the technology domain and has worked with companies including HMV Saregama, Zapak.com and Network 18.
Sports Flashes claims to have seen more than 300,000 downloads to date and aims to touch 1 million downloads by end of the year. The app is currently available to users in five languages. It is also looking to offer content in 11 languages within a year.
âWe are looking to create and promote hyperlocal sports content across 18 states and acquire Indian sports content covering at least 20 sports categories. We have virtually no competition as of now in the exclusive sports streaming and multi-sports content space, though Sportskeeda is a worthy benchmark to understand the market dynamics,â Raheja said.
Other players in the digital sports content segment include Sportskeeda, Cricbuzz, Sports Asia, Khel Now and Floodlightz, among others.
Singapore-based Agnificent Platform Technologies Pte. Ltdâwhich runs Khel Now, a crowd-managed platform that aims to bring sports-related content and social networking togetherâraised $350,000 from Anglian Omega Network in October last year.
Bangalore-based Absolute Sports Pvt. Ltd, which is behind online sports content platform Sportskeeda, hired YES Securities to raise $4-5 million in August last year.
HT Media Ltd, the publisher of Hindustan Times and Mint newspapers and related websites, acquired a 50.5% stake in Singapore-based digital content firm Sports Asia Pte. Ltd in June last year.
Times Internet Ltd, the digital arm of Bennett Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL), acquired cricket news and information portal Cricbuzz.com from Bangalore-based Akuate Internet Services Pvt. Ltd in 2014. BCCL is the parent of The Times of India and a host of other news properties.
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