Sequoia, CMC fund invests in China's iQiyi Sports

The company, which was just established in July by local video streaming platform iQiyi and Super Sports Media, previously received RMB500 million from IDG Capital and Chinese government-backed Huiying Borun Investment. China Sports Capital and IDG will become the founding investors of iQiyi Sports, marking the completion of the company's Series A financing, CMC said in a statement.

China Sports Capital was set up last year and seeks investments that involve the commercialization of the global sports industry and have a relevance to China. Potential targets include sports leagues and associations, intellectual property, talent representation, media and entertainment, consumer retail, and lifestyle brands. The total size of the fund is RMB2 billion, a CMC spokesperson told AVCJ.

The iQiyi-Super Sports Media tie-up has seen the latter's app renamed iQiyi Sports. The aim is to provide a wide range of livestreamed content by pooling the two companies' broadcast rights across football, tennis, and golf. Tennis coverage will include the ATP and WTA tours and the Australian Open, while the football program will feature matches from the soon-to-launch UEFA Nations League and the English Premier League (EPL).

However, Super Sports Media only has the EPL rights to the end of the 2018-2019 season. It was outbid for the three-year contract from 2019 by Suning, a domestic electronics retailer. Suning, which owns streaming platform PPTV, recently raised a $600 million Series A round led by Goldman Sachs and Alibaba Group for its sports division.

China Sports Capital's other investments to date include Wanmingyang Media, which organizes and streams kickboxing events in China, and local fitness start-up Supermonkey.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Media
• Technology
• China
• Sequoia Capital
• China Media Capital
• TMT