MUMBAI: FanDuel Inc, the one-day fantasy sports operator, has closed $275 million in Series E financing, bringing total capital raised to $363 million.
The oversubscribed round was led by global investment firm KKR with Google Capital and Time Warner Investments, together with Turner Sports, also joining.
A number of NFL and NBA team owners participated in the round along with previous investors, including Shamrock Capital, NBC Sports Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Pentech Ventures and Piton Capital.
The company continues to grow rapidly with paid active users growing 300 per cent from the same period last year. The financing will be used to increase customer acquisition efforts across the US, accelerate the introduction of new products, features and growth initiatives to serve the company’s mission to create the ultimate fan experience, and to build out its industry-leading management team.
“Having partners like KKR, Google Capital and Time Warner/Turner Sports invest in FanDuel underscores the way this company is transforming sports entertainment. This roster of investors, with expertise across finance, technology, advertising and sports entertainment, is committed to the growth and success of FanDuel as a game-changer for the sports industry,” said FanDuel CEO and co-founder Nigel Eccles.
“We are thrilled to support FanDuel’s next phase of growth given the company’s leading position in the daily fantasy market, model operating principles, highly efficient customer acquisition capabilities, and visionary management team. FanDuel is poised to become the most engaging digital entertainment platform for sports fans around the world,” added KKR’s Ted Oberwager.
The news comes even as FanDuel hired an experienced team of over 40 developers based in Orlando, Florida focused exclusively on sports and mobile gaming and finalizing exclusive, multiyear partnerships with 13 NBA teams and 16 NFL teams.
Mesa Global, which was recently acquired by Houlihan Lokey, served as FanDuel’s investment banker.
