WSC Sports
- WSC to recruit more than 150 new employees this year
- Funding to also go towards developing functionality for integrating betting and NFTs
WSC Sports, the AI-powered highlights specialist, has confirmed a US$100 million Series D funding round led by ION Crossover Partners (ICP).
Existing investors, including Intel Capital, O. Tech and Dan Gilbert’s Detroit Venture Partners, also participated in WSC’s latest capital raise.
“[We] couldn’t have asked for better new partners than ICP to join our professional team of investors,” said Daniel Shichman, WSC Sports co-founder and chief executive. “ICP will contribute from their vast experience working with growth stage technology companies as we continue our global expansion.”
WSC said it plans to use the new funding to support ‘aggressive growth plans’ for 2022 and beyond, including a push into new territories and new sports. WSC added that it will also be seeking to integrate new features into the platform focused on areas such as betting and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
In addition, the company is set to recruit more than 150 new employees this year, both in Israel and at its regional offices in New York, Sydney, and London.
WSC Sports surpassed more than 200 global customers in 2021, with its rights holder clients seeking to automate, customise, and scale up their digital content efforts.
Last year, more than 3.4 million highlight clips were created using the company’s AI-based platform – more than nine years’ worth of video.
The company also new rolled out popular new tools, such as WSC Stories, which saw the firm’s clients produce more than 6,000 short clips that received close to 100 million views.
“Sports media rights owners are embracing new ways to connect with their fans and generate new revenue streams,” added Shichman. “With new consumption habits moving at a rapid pace, short-form video has become a key component in user acquisition, retention, and monetisation and our new products that were launched during 2021 for broadcasters, OTT providers and sports betting operators demonstrate the scale and variety of use-cases our platform supports”.
