ONE Championship further fortified its position as Asia’s premier sports media property after securing a significant equity investment led by Sequoia India and Mission Holdings.
In an announcement made yesterday, ONE said the latest investment round, participated in by new and existing investors, has pushed its total capital raised to date to $100 million.
“I am thrilled to announce this partnership with Sequoia. Our mission is to unleash superheroes across Asia to ignite inspiration, hope, strength, and dreams across all segments of society. As one of the most successful venture capital firms in the world, Sequoia has an unparalleled track record of partnering with early stage companies and helping to build them into global market leaders. I am confident that Sequoia’s expertise, network, and resources will contribute significantly to ONE Championship’s success. I am thrilled that Sequoia, Mission Holdings, and Heliconia Capital Management believe in both our mission of unleashing superheroes and our goal of becoming Asia’s first multibillion-dollar sports media property,” said Chatri Sityodtong, chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, in a statement shared to local media.
“ONE Championship has arguably the most blue-chip institutional shareholder group in the sports media industry in Asia today. The combination of Sequoia, Mission Holdings, and Heliconia Capital Management creates a meaningful competitive advantage for ONE Championship,” he added.
Since opening shop in 2011, ONE Championship has made significant gains as a group across the board as attested, among other things, by how it has resonated strongly with Asian audiences across the continent, delivering record-breaking TV ratings share as high as 26%.
ONE has also registered exponential growth in social media video views, annualizing 600 million video views for 2017 as only 312 thousand in 2014.
And such headway, and ONE’s room for further growth, is not lost to both Sequoia and Mission Holdings, which cited it as a key reason for coming on board.
“Sequoia is thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Chatri, Mission Holdings, Heliconia, and the management team to build an enduring and unique martial arts franchise in Asia. We are excited about the potential for live martial arts content at a time when mobile video viewership is exploding across emerging markets. ONE Championship has been a pioneer and major driving force of the martial arts industry in Asia, with surging popularity across major countries. It has played an incredible role in nurturing local talent and developing local stars, led by a wonderful, mission-oriented team. We are delighted to join the team in their pursuit of developing the leading martial arts franchise for Asia’s 4.4 billion people,” said Shailendra J Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore Pte. Ltd., in the same statement.
“In six short years, ONE Championship has become Asia’s top global sports brand in history. While we are delighted to have been a part of this journey as partners since the beginning, we are equally thrilled to have such a storied, successful venture capital firm like Sequoia join as fellow shareholders. With this equity investment led by Sequoia and Mission Holdings, ONE Championship is well on its way to becoming Asia’s first multibillion-dollar sports media property, “ Saurabh Mittal, Chairman of Mission Holdings, for his part, said.
Next stop for ONE Championship is a live event Indonesia on July 29, dubbed “ONE: Conquest of Kings” and will feature the flyweight world championship unification between reigning champion Kairat Akhmetov and interim titleholder Adriano Moraes.
In the Philippines, ONE Championship has staged 10 successful live events, the last one in April — the jampacked “ONE: Kings of Destiny.” — Michael Angelo S. Murillo
