Singapore's One Championship receives $166m Series D

The company has now raised more than $250 million to date. Temasek Holdings and Greenoaks capital also took part in the funding. Temasek-owned Heliconia Capital Management has backed One Championship across several rounds, including a re-up last year in a round led by Sequoia Capital India and Mission Holdings, an investment vehicle owned by billionaire Saurabh Mittal.

Founded in 2011, the organization, which claims to be the largest sports media agency in Asia, hosts international MMA championships in cities such as Bangkok, Beijing, Singapore, Jakarta, Manila, Macau, and Taipei. The live events are broadcast through television and social media platforms.

The size of One Championship’s audience is unclear. The company claims to have a global broadcast reach of 1.7 potential viewers across 138 countries and work with the likes of Fox Sports, ABS-CBN, Astro, Premier Sports, and Mediacorp. When the previous round closed in July 2017, online video views for the year to date were said to be 600 million, up from 312,000 in 2014.

Other private equity investees in the combat sports space in Asia include Glory World Series, a leading global kickboxing organization. Yao Capital, a sport-focused PE firm co-founded by former Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, and cable TV giant Liberty Global led a Series B round for the company in 2016. It included a joint venture to promote the sport in China.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Expansion
• Media
• Singapore
• Sequoia Capital
• Growth capital