The company is known as the number one basketball lifestyle media brand in America
IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 31, 2023 — Ballislife, a well-known basketball and lifestyle media company, today announced the completion of a $2.7 million round of fundraising. The Series A funding, led by Oakvale Sports Investco out of London, England, puts the company at a $20 million pre-money valuation. Traditionally Oakvale Capital takes an interest in businesses in the igaming industry. Still, Sanford Loudon, a partner at the investment group, said they took a chance on Ballislife because they saw the vision.
“Oakvale Ventures partnered with big names from the gaming industry like Johnny Hartnett, Paddy Power, and industry investors Amaury de Sadeleer of Mount Media and Gabriel Demirci of Growthbox Ventures,” said Loudon. “We’re excited about our investment into Ballislife as we believe it’s forged a unique position in the sports social media landscape with some of the highest quality content and event creation out there.”
Created in 2005 as a brand highlighting basketball players on its platform, Ballislife has grown from a “Mixtape” outlet to respected basketball apparel, media, and event management company. Hosting events like the annual Ballislife All-American Game, Ballislife Jr. All-American Camp, and the Eastbay Funk Dunk Contest, the Southern California-based company prides itself on creating unique in-person experiences for basketball fans across the country. With the new funding, company leaders look forward to adequately monetizing their existing and growing properties, like expanding their marketing partnerships and athlete influencer network. To propel their vision forward, Founder and CEO Matt Rodriguez said they’ve already built out their sales and creative team with crucial hires of Susan Jaget (Sales Director) and Victor Bernedo (Creative Director).
“My co-founder Arek Kissoyan and I started Ballislife with the help of our team literally from the ground up with no outside funding whatsoever,” said Rodriguez. “Now that the brand we’ve created has grown in popularity, we want to continue growing our team and building upon our legacy. I’ve always believed resources can help you make some good mistakes.”
Beyond the growth of company operations, Ballislife looks forward to garnering more success from its partnerships with other industry-leading brands like Nike, Red Bull, Amazon, Chime, and Adidas. As a result, the company saw a more than 940% year-over-year growth in revenue of partnership deals in 2022.
More About Ballislife
Founded in 2005, Ballislife has been the uncontested leader in producing high school basketball mixtapes. Expanding beyond content production and distribution, media, and event management, Ballislife is now the #1 basketball lifestyle brand in America. Ballislife’s social networks are followed by millions of fans, and has more than 5.8 billion views across all platforms. For more information, visit www.Ballislife.com.
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SOURCE ballislife, inc.
