OYO Sports, a fan figurines developer, has raised $3 million in seed funding bringing total angel and seed funding to-date to $4.6 million. The funds are being used to build a vertically integrated e-commerce business with real-time U.S. based manufacturing. In addition to several participating angel investors, seed investors include Boston Seed Capital and Atlas Venture.
“We’ve been amazed by the consumer demand, reflected in both our dramatic e-commerce growth and incredible sell-thru results at retail,” said Tom Skripps, Founder and CEO, OYO Sports. “We are ambitiously building on a vision that extends beyond toys to engage the kid in all fans.”
OYO Sports designs, manufactures and offers league and player licensed minifigure building-toys that carry the likenesses of popular professional athletes. From baseball to football to hockey, OYO’s partnerships with US professional sports leagues and players associations provide a platform to develop miniature versions of fans’ favorite players from their favorite teams. Beyond its current league relationships, OYO sees potential to extend its licensing agreement to sports and leagues around the world.
OYO Sports leadership team includes: Mike Ewing, previously CMO at LogMeIn and SVP, Vistaprint; Shari Fabiani, previously head of global marketing and product marketing, Adidas/Rockport; Daryl McKay, previously president, Sports Images; Craig Gainsboro, previously CFO tax and advisory services, PWC; Martin Hanssmann, previously president of AltaStream.
“OYO Sports has captured emotional connections with sports fans by creating minifigures of their favorite player and field sets from their favorite team,” said Peter Blacklow, partner at Boston Seed Capital. “We’re seeing fans making detailed video recreations with OYOs; we’ve even seen many professional athletes posing with their own OYOs and tweeting those pictures out to fans around the world.”
“OYO’s potential goes way beyond toys,” said Ryan Moore, partner at Atlas Venture. “With a growing group of highly engaged customers and social followers, there is a built-in ability to expand physical product lines and go well past that into digital experiences as well.”
OYO Sports currently has approximately 120 employees at its Acton, MA headquarters. At OYO’s headquarters, the company designs, manufactures, prints and assembles thousands of individual minifigures each day with the ability to produce product and deliver orders nearly real-time based on always changing demand in the sports world. In the case of a player who is traded or signs with a new team, OYO can create their new minifigure, from design, through testing, and approval in less than two days.
