Toronto’s theScore, Inc. completed a new financing deal today, along with an existing one, for a total of $17.25 million in fresh funds for the company.
In two separate deals, one for $9.1 million and another for $8.14 million, the company issued Class A shares to a group of investors including Beacon Securities and Cannacord Genuity. Exactly a year ago, the company raised $16 million in funding shortly after going independent.
According to CEO John Levy, the funding gives the company some extra breathing room to grow its products without worrying about red ink on the earnings sheet. “Our shares are more widely distributed than we’ve ever had them before,” thanks to Beacon’s help disseminating them to the right people. “It’s great to raise the money, but now [the shares] are beginning to be more widely-held.”
This past year has been good for theScore and its mobile apps. Mobile ad revenue was up 143% in the six months leading up to the end of Q2, compared to the same period a year earlier. The company, which focuses the majority of its content to users in North America, grew its user base significantly in the United States, leading to “increased utilization of its advertising inventory.” As we reported earlier in the year, too, the company reached the 5 million user milestone across its app ecosystem.
theScore is also getting involved in the native advertising game, teaming up with brands like Molson during special events like the Olympics hockey finals earlier this year. The company has been preparing for an onslaught of new users in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup, and is working to bring instant notifications of player goals, team wins and every other stat imaginable from the pitches across Brazil.
Levy intimated that the company is launching a number of new projects, and is using the new funding to continue to be a “premiere challenger against ESPN,” the Disney-owned sports powerhouse. While continuing to focus on a number of mobile-first features, theScore will be adding social elements to the app in the near future.
Ultimately, the company is in a good position. It’s a technology company that employs a number of sports-obsessed developers, engineers, marketers and researchers. “We’ve really grown over the past number of years on the strength of the [iOS and Android] apps,” says Levy, and that focus is unlikely to change any time soon.
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