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One Championship raises series c funding to keep ahead of rival UFC

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By Taruka Srivastav, Reporter

July 20, 2017 | 3 min read

One Championship is aggressively increasing its market value through commercial partnerships to stay ahead of rival UFC.

One Championship raises series c funding to keep ahead of rival UFC

One Championship raises series c funding to keep ahead of rival UFC

After renewing partnership with ABS-CBN to promote MMA, it has now raised series C investment led by Sequoia India and Mission Holdings.

Commenting on the partnership, Chatri Sityodtong, chairman and CEO of One Championship said, “I am thrilled to announce this partnership with Sequoia. I am confident that Sequoia’s expertise, network, and resources will contribute significantly to One Championship's success.”

The total capital raised to US$100 million for One Championship. Both new and existing investors also participated in this investment round. One Championship continues with its attempt to woo global brands with “there’s nothing more authentically Asian than MMA” claim.

The Drum spoke with One Championship founder Chatri Sityodtong on how the business is marketing MMA to the world last month, who also discussed the partnerships it has with major brands including GoDaddy and Disney.

Shailendra J Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital (India), stated: “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.”

According to data from Nielsen, Facebook and Repucom earlier this year, One Championship continues to experience exponential growth for 2017. One has catapulted its video view numbers from 312 thousand video views in 2014 to an annualized rate of 600 million video views for 2017. Other key metrics across social media and TV broadcast registered similar exponential growth rates.

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