Digital Publisher Minute Media Secures $17M Funding Round

Minute Media, the digital publisher behind the sports-centric brands 90Min and 12Up, as well as the esports brand DBLTAP, has raised $17M in a series F financing round. The new round is being led by the company’s existing investors, as well as new investors Goldman Sachs, La Maison and Vintage.

The company plans to use the funding to expand the mobile-first technology platforms it has built to power its brands, and to expand into new content areas outside of sports.

“In order to do what we are doing even better, when the opportunity presented itself to recapitalize for the next three years or whatever it may be, you want to take advantage of those opportunities today,” Rich Routman, the president of Minute Media, tells Digital News Daily. “More brands, more platforms, new audiences in new languages. New tech on top of the platform.”

The company licenses its technology to third parties, including Turner, and it expects to continue building out its software as a service business with the new funding.

90Min focuses on global soccer, 12Up on U.S. sports and DBLTAP on esports, but Routman says the company has eyes on other fare.

“We have been beta-testing pop culture for a while -- music, fashion, TV and movies -- and we have been beta-testing news and politics now for about six months," says Routman.

Minute Media currently operates in 12 languages and also expects to expand its sports products in new languages around the world, citing the opportunity for 90Min in places like Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.

Minute Media is also considering whether to make acquisitions.

“When we see people cutting back, it gives us the opportunity to invest,” Routman says. “We are a buyer, [with] the ability to integrate more brands into our platform, the ability to invest more in technology because that side of the business… is unique and differentiated.”

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