High school sports is big business, but few schools can afford to support a robust athletic website with complete player stats, dynamic schedules and rich media. That’s where Varsity News Network comes in. VNN is today announcing an additional $3 million in funding to scale nationwide and launch its first app.
The Series A was led by Arsenal Venture Partners, with participation including, but not limited to, North Coast Technology Ventures, RSL Venture Partners, Start Garden, Grand Angels, Northern Michigan Angels, First Step Fund, Muskegon Angels and the Michigan Angel Fund.
Started just over two years ago, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company boasts 250 schools in 14 states currently using the VNN platform.
Essentially, VNN provides turnkey websites for high school athletic departments that work alongside existing programs and pulls in media from social channels. The result is a professional-looking website that is rich in data that most schools can afford and easily manage. Moreover, while local media often covers high school sports, they tend to focus on superstars. VNN gives all players an opportunity for fame.
The resulting website doesn’t seem like much more than a simple WordPress theme, but the schools are apparently loving it. The company’s current customer counts were acquired on just $552K from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund and a partial close of $1.09 million last February. The new round of financing will go towards scaling operations to get more schools signed up.
“In just over two years we’ve grown the VNN platform to include more than 250 schools in 14 states, supporting hundreds of thousands of students and their families,” said Ryan Vaughn, co- founder and CEO of VNN, in a released statement today. “With this capital, we are poised to grow even faster and reach the 40 million students and family members who are left out of traditional sports media coverage.”