Fancred, the Boston-based startup who is in the midst of building a social media for passionate sports fans, announced that they have raised $3 million in their latest round of funding. Led by some of their original backers, including Atlas Ventures and Militello Capital who helped to contribute some of the original $1.5 million that was raised in 2012, Fancred saw expansion as well from new investors like Breakaway Innovation Group.
"That's what I'm actually most proud of," Fancred CEO Hossein Kash Razzaghi told BostInno regarding the funding announcement, "We were able to hear from our original investors who did more than double down, and we were able to bring on new investors, who see opportunity. I think that says a lot about the team."
Fancred is designed to be a place for sports fans to go to make a record of all of their favorite experiences at games, or simply following their teams. It's billed as a place for like-minded fans to connect. And that engagement on a personal level with users has been a successful one for the company. This, in turn, is what triggered the increased $3 million in funding.
"We were really happy with the performance and engagement of the product," Razzaghi noted, "and that's what really led us to raise this next round."
Explaining more about what he sees as being the focus of the company, Razzaghi got to the heart of what a sports fanatic is.
"Each fan has a unique experience, with unique moments," he explained. "Fancred was built on the idea that we can help them capture those moments in a better way, and connect with other fans that share the same experiences." He even explained his own personal connection, and why the company has a chance to make a major impact on the sports world.
When I went to college, whenever I would go to a game, I would collect the ticket stubs of those games, and I would put them in a shoebox. And whenever I go home, I take that out and relive those moments. I mean the first date I took my wife on was a Mississippi State football game. So it's a lot more than just about sports. I think Fancred is my digital shoebox, that will always be with me, that allows me to capture these moments. I think there's a massive opportunity for Fancred to do that for hundreds of millions of fans around the world, and I think we're just at the beginning of that.
The newly-raised money will allow Fancred to finish production on their Android app, to go along with the already-released iOS and web features.
"We really wanted to make sure we had the in-house team before going ahead with (Android)," Razzaghi explained. As far as specifics, he said that the Android app would get rolled out "by the end of the year." With this latest news, they can now be confident of that. It also means that the company's team will grow.
"We're going to expand, Razzaghi noted confidently. "I think we're expanding across two core areas of product related help, and marketing. And I think that marketing really expands a lot of categories. It's in line with our hiring plans."
Images via Fancred
