Participated · Equity · Jun 2015

The Players' Tribune is a New York City-based platform founded by Derek Jeter in 2014 that publishes athlete-generated long- and short-form written features, videos, audio and photography. The platform features content from more than 1,200 influential athletes across sports. The company is led by president Jaymee Messler. The Players' Tribune raised $40m in a Series C funding round led by IVP with participation from GV, New Enterprise Associates, Thomas Tull, GenTrust and individual athletes. The company intends to use the funds to further scale its content offerings and to expand video production, sales and editorial operations. Management also plans to develop new distribution and revenue opportunities. The Players Tribune is an athlete-driven online sports network that publishes first-person editorial content and original video from professional athletes. The site is expanding its video presence with players recording segments directly and producing feature programming such as Singular Focus, Chris Weidman’s training regime. Management says the new capital will be used to ramp up content, add new product features, and build a team of producers and editors. The company plans to introduce shorter lifestyle segments over the next year. Financially, the outlet closed $9.5 million of a planned $15 million financing less than a year after securing $3 million in its first outside round. Leadership emphasizes direct athlete-to-fan connections as a core part of the product vision.