Hookit, the sponsorship analytics and valuation platform, announced it has raised $16 million in growth capital.
The investment was led by Santa Monica, CA-based growth equity firm Arrowroot Capital, which focuses on software-as-a-service (SaaS) and technology-based businesses. Other participants in the round included Bialla Ventures, Social Starts and existing private investors. The additional funding will help Hookit continue to push the boundaries of new technologies in machine learning and predictive analytics to support and empower the sports industry.
This year, more than $130B will be invested globally in sports sponsorship and related marketing activation. In years past, the value of sports sponsorship was broadly estimated based on assumptive, impression-based measurement of traditional media channels like television, print and radio. With the massive growth and shift to social and digital media, these modern channels demand modern methods to track engagement and sponsorship value with real-time, verified data and insights.
Hookit claims to effectively measures $5 billion per month of previously unknown sponsorship value that brands receive from athletes, teams, leagues, venues and events in social and digital media. Now actively tracking nearly 500,000 sports entities across the largest social and digital media platforms, Hookit’s growing roster of clients includes GoPro, Monster Energy, Sony, Vans, Asics, Major League Soccer, Canadian Olympic Team, World Surf League, FIS, NHRA, PGA European Tour, McLaren Honda F1, Speedway Motorsports Inc., BF Goodrich/Michelin, Liverpool FC, United States Ski and Snowboard Association and Feld Entertainment. Hookit is based in Solana Beach, CA.
“Hookit’s goal is to empower the industry, both buyers and sellers, to maximize sponsorship value in today’s current media landscape, with unprecedented specificity,” says Scott Tilton, Co-founder and CEO of Hookit. “We have forged an amazing partnership with the Arrowroot team and the additional funding will help us deliver on our vision on a global scale.”
“Hookit has built a very powerful platform that is years ahead of the traditional media measurement companies.” said Matthew Safaii, managing partner at Arrowroot Capital. “They have done a tremendous job attracting top tier clients in the soccer, motorsport and Olympic categories and we look forward to being a value-added partner to support their continued growth.”
Building on this momentum, Hookit will use the additional financing to continue expanding its global reach, accelerate innovation of its award winning, market-leading platform and grow its talented team to serve a growing list of major customers and partners worldwide.
Hookit is the leading sponsorship analytics and valuation platform. As consumption and fan engagement of sports grows exponentially on social and digital media, Hookit helps brands to maximize sponsorship investments and empowers athletes, teams, leagues and federations to prove and increase their value to sponsors. Hookit measures value across multiple social and digital platforms by analyzing overall engagement and brand promotion, including mentions, hashtags, keywords and logos within photos and videos using computer vision software. Hookit’s Valuation Methodology (HVM) was awarded The 2016 Digital Marketing Association’s Innovation Award for Valuation and Attribution.
