Sports community platform Stadium Live raises $10M to expand its digital world for Gen Z
Today, digital world maker Stadium Live Studios, Inc. announced its $10 million Series A funding round to continue its mission of bringing fantasy sports to a younger generation. The Canadian startup was founded in 2020 by Kevin Kim and Paul Xu with the goal of gamifying the sports fandom and building a “digital playground” of sorts for Gen Z sports fans.
Its flagship product, Stadium Live, is a sports community platform that allows users — ages 12 years old and up — to customize their own avatar, as well as buy digital collectibles, gain XP points by drafting teams during live matches and sports streams, create a squad with friends, join daily livestreams, polls, trivia, and chat with like-minded players. Stadium Live has garnered over 500,000 users to date.
The funding is led by KB Partners and Union Square Ventures. Professional basketball player Kevin Durant’s 35 Ventures also participated in the round along with French soccer player Blaise Matuidi’s Origins Fund, Dapper Labs Ventures, Position Ventures, Valhalla Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Breakout Capital.
The funding is a significant extension to its $3 million seed round in January 2021, bringing the company’s total post-money valuation to around $32 million.
As traditional sports viewership declines among Gen Z, social media and streaming platforms are becoming the favorite destination for young sports fans.
“The sports industry has been really slow at adapting to a new generation of fans,” Co-founder and CEO, Kevin Kim, told TechCrunch. “The industry hasn’t found a good way to engage with them. And that’s what we’re trying to solve.”
As for the new funding, Stadium Live plans to hire engineering and product resources to push out more features
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