Pitchero Secures New £3.1m Investment to Drive Ambitious Growth in Soccer
Monday 30th January 2017
Leeds based digital sports brand Pitchero has received £3.1million in Series A funding from ICM, a global fund manager who have now become minority stakeholders in the business.
The multi-million pound investment is the latest step in Pitchero’s ambitious plans to improve the grassroots and semi-professional football experience for players and supporters, using innovative technology and social content.
Historically created to answer the needs of amateur and grassroots teams who lacked the digital platform to organise and grow their community, Pitchero has grown organically in congruence with developments in the mobile and video tech markets. The brand now services more than 70,000 sports teams, accounting for over 1million active participants across football, rugby, hockey and cricket.
ICM, who have numerous other interests in sport including Harlequins Rugby Club, proactively approached Pitchero due to the scale of the brand’s ambition, potential mass consumer platform and volume of digital content.
A team from Yorkshire law firm Gordons’ corporate department led by partner Jonathan Asquez and solicitor Lucy Leyland advised the company in securing investment from the private equity fund. Gordons has previously worked with Pitchero to provide commercial contract advice and the firm’s experience in advising on private equity investments meant it was ideally placed to advise in this matter.
This was Pitchero’s first round of investment, securing all required funding in order to now place a primary focus on the growth of global grassroots soccer. Immediate focuses will see the brand looking to exploit the lack of sports team technologies in the current market, and maintain their transition towards building a mass consumer platform.
The news comes on the back of a recent announcement around Pitchero’s ground-breaking new broadcast arrangement for non-league football, after agreeing a deal to film all future matches in the Northern Premier League. Starting with the Northern Premier League, and soon to include Division One North and South, all matches will be filmed using the Pitchero Play platform, with exclusive digital highlights packages and clips available across club and local media channels.
This expands upon the recent launch of Pitchero Play, which enables clubs at any level to capture instant highlights that can be published across club and social media channels within 60 seconds.
Mark Fletcher, CEO of Pitchero said; “We want Pitchero to be the network that allows clubs to grow participation and engage the next generation of sports stars, and this new investment will strongly help us towards this aim.
“We were grateful to Jonathan and his team at Gordons for their help in guiding us through the process of securing the investment and we are very excited about what the future holds for Pitchero.”
Gordons’ Jonathan Asquez said: “Pitchero is an example of the vibrancy of Yorkshire’s tech sector, and this investment will allow the company to increase its reach both in the UK and internationally. We are very happy to be involved in securing the investment and we are excited to see what the future holds for Pitchero.”
Gordons has offices in Leeds and Bradford and employs 196 people. Clients include retailers B&M, Iceland and Morrisons; construction and high performance materials manufacturer Saint Gobain; international brewers Molson Coors; and the world’s largest electrical heating business Glen Dimplex. For further information on the firm, visit www.gordonsllp.com.
