Omidyar leads pre Series A round in SportVot

Sports broadcast and talent discovery platform SportVot has secured Rs 9.4 crore in a pre-Series A round led by Omidyar Network India. The round also saw participation from Anicut Capital, StartupLynk, Ventana Ventures as well as its existing investors Capital A, Ankur Capital, SucSEED Indovation Fund, and Marwah Sports.

SportVot had previously raised 3.25 crore in its seed round in 2022 by its existing investors.

The proceeds will be utilised to enhance the creation of opportunities for emerging sports talent while enhancing sports participation at all level across India, SportVot said in a press release.

Co-founded in 2019 by Sidhhant Agarwal, Shubhangi Gupta and Yash Bhagwatkar, SportVot provides a full suite of online services to stream sports events and help discover sports talent from the grassroots of India. The startup has helped to bring investment to local sports associations, and innovated sports broadcasting by deploying cloud technology. 

The Mumbai-based firm has partnerships with the likes of the Brahmaputra Volleyball League in Assam, the Maharashtra State Kabaddi Association, the Football Delhi Association and the Nashik District Cricket Association and aims to bring remote regions which can participate in the global sports dialogue. It also claims to have digitised more than 95,000 games from over 15 sports, providing visibility to over 350,000 athletes.

The investment came months after Omidyar decided to wind up its Indian operations. According to the investor, it will no longer make new investments but it will honour the commitments for follow-up rounds. The firm recently led $14 million round in electric vehicle financing startup Revfin.