TORONTO – TheScore, Inc. today announced an influx of $16 million in private placement financing from a small group of new and existing investors that includes Rogers Media.
The company said it has entered into subscription agreements for $16 million non-brokered private placement of 100,000,000 Class A Subordinate Voting Shares at a price of $0.16. Relay Ventures, a venture capital fund based in Toronto and Silicon Valley focused on the mobile space, is leading the private placement, along with existing shareholders Levfam Holdings Ltd. and Rogers Media.
This follows a 2012 deal by Rogers, which acquired 11,162,084 Class A subordinate voting shares of theScore, Inc. for $167 million last October. Rogers is still awaiting a decision from the CRTC on its purchase of the TV channel, which made up the bulk of that agreement, a deal which spun off theScore's digital and mobile assets into a new company controlled by John Levy.
The financing round will allow theScore to accelerate the development and marketing of its mobile sports platforms while further expanding its advertising sales and marketing capabilities in the U.S.
The company says its mobile sports platforms have achieved significant growth since September 2009, growing from 600,000 monthly users to more than 4.2 million in January 2013.
The private placement financing “gives theScore significant financial resources to accelerate the growth and development of our great mobile sports platforms,” John Levy, chairman and CEO of theScore, Inc. said in a release. “It also affords us an increased runway to turbocharge the momentum we’ve been building, strengthen our sales and marketing teams and further capitalize on the industry-wide explosion in mobile ad spending.”
Following the closing of the private placement, Relay Ventures’ co-founder and managing partner John Albright will join theScore’s board of directors.
