Pixellot Announces Completion of $16M Funding Round Dedicated to Accelerating its AI Automated Sports Production Penetration
Shamrock Capital Advisors led the round, joined by new investor Altshuler-Shaham Group and existing investors including Grupo Globo and the Arkin Family.
TEL AVIV, Israel, June 24, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Pixellot the world's leading provider of AI-Automated™ sports production, announced today the completion of a new round of financing by the company's existing investors with the addition of Altshuler-Shaham, Israel's largest investment house. The capital will be earmarked for accelerating the sales and marketing activities to address the growing need for safer, more cost-effective solutions for broadcasting and stats. This serves a particularly important need given the current evolving sports landscape in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has immensely impacted the sports industry and has forced teams and leagues to re-evaluate the way they operate going forward. Many leagues and teams rely on ticket sales, concessions, and merchandise as their primary source of income. With fans not able to attend events, teams not only face the challenge of losing their key means of generating income for the near future, but also the connection with their fan base. The current disruption poses a substantial threat, especially to women's leagues, lower divisions, and niche sports.
"As sports fans around the world eagerly await the return of their teams and leagues, it's more important than ever to provide the ability for sports organizations to broadcast content," said Andy Howard, Partner at Shamrock Capital. "Pixellot's high-quality, cost-effective automated sports production solutions will benefit content providers, teams and viewers, particularly as fan attendance remains limited to preserve the health and safety of players and fans."
"Pixellot has a winning proposition that will enable teams to return to play while interacting with their fans easily and safely in a cost-effective manner," said Alon Werber Pixellot CEO. "Even Division One leagues worldwide are much more cost-conscious and are now showing a growing interest in our automated video analysis and analytics solution. We are happy that our investors realized this unique situation and unanimously agreed that there is a need to double-down on our commercial activity. We believe automatic production is a solution that will eventually lead to better engagement between teams and fans."
"With 8,000 fields and venues and 40,000 live games produced each month, Pixellot is clearly the leader in this market," said Adam Ben Dror, Head of Alternatives Department at Altshuler-Shaham. "Pixellot's breadth of product offering and global capabilities truly set them apart and we are confident that enabling Pixellot to charge ahead and meet the growing demand for its products globally will bring great value to the sports world and to our investors."
Pixellot's AI-based automated production solution provides the sports market with easy and affordable ways to produce and distribute high-quality game video and stats. The system is installed at the venue once and then it functions automatically – producing and streaming games live and on-demand. Pixellot's AI-automated technology ensures high-quality broadcasts without any human operators at the venue including advanced graphics and statistics. Computer vision algorithms monitor the movement of the ball and the players, and automatically select the action and highlights sports fans want to watch.
At the end of 2019, Pixellot announced the acquisition of VidSwap – an analytics and video platform for coaches and analysts. Pixellot works with schools, clubs, leagues, and federations worldwide, and currently streams more than 90,000 live hours per month from over 140 leagues and tournaments. Pixellot investors also include FirstTime VC, Asahi Broadcasting Company, and Baidu.
For more information, visit: pixellot.tv.
About Pixellot
Pixellot offers automated sports production solutions that provide affordable alternatives to traditional video capture, production, and distribution systems for professional and semi-professional sports events. Founded in 2013, Pixellot's AI technology solution streamlines production workflow by creating a stitched panoramic image of the entire playing surface. Advanced algorithms enable automated coverage of the flow of play, generate highlights and add graphics and ads. Pixellot systems are deployed by broadcasters, production companies, clubs, federations, universities, high schools, sports portals, and coaching solution providers around the globe.
Media contact: Yossi Tarablus | Director of Marketing | +972.522.890.297 | [email protected]
About Shamrock Capital
Shamrock Capital is a Los Angeles-based investment firm with approximately $1.9 billion of assets under management, investing exclusively in the media, entertainment, and communications sectors. Shamrock was originally founded in 1978 as the family investment company for the late Roy E. Disney and has since evolved into an institutional money manager with a leading group of investors including endowment and pension funds. Shamrock partners with strong management teams and takes an active, collaborative approach to creating value in each investment. In addition to its diverse portfolio of Entertainment IP, Shamrock's current investments include Ad Results Media, Adweek, Appetize, Branded Cities, DeCurtis, FanDuel, Iyuno Media Group, Maple Media, Mobilitie, Omega Wireless, Pixellot, and Wpromote. For more information, visit shamrockcap.com.
About Altshuler Shaham
The Altshuler Shaham Group, founded by Kalman Shaham and Gilad Altshuler, is a leading Israeli firm in the field of asset management. Since 1990, it has specialized in the management of portfolios and mutual, provident and pension funds. The Group currently manages approximately 70 billion NIS and provides a wide range of services to its institutional and private investors. Altshuler Shaham`s creative, professional and cautious approach, coupled with an innovative investment strategy, has established Altshuler Shaham as a leading asset management brand in the Israeli market.
For more information: http://www.as-invest.co.il.
SOURCE Pixellot
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