Richmond sports app company SEQL has raised $1.466 million from 21 investors as part of an equity funding round and is looking to raise a total of $2 million, according to recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
The company did not respond to requests for comment. Companies generally do not comment on ongoing funding raises because of SEC regulations.
Founded in 2019 by former college football players Robert de Wolff and Bryant Drayton, SEQL offers an app that helps student-athletes with exposure and access to scholarships. SEQL stands for “social equality.” The founders have said many athletes are not given fair access to college recruiting because their parents and family do not have economic advantages. They call their platform “impact-as-a-service.”
The company is backed by several well-known athletes, including Arizona Cardinals receiver DeAndre Hopkins, Richmond native and WNBA player Megan Walker, Pro Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders, former NBA player Quinn Cook, former NFL safety Ryan Clark and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman. In total, the company has raised $7.4 million since its founding, according to Crunchbase. Early Light Ventures is also an investor.
The company currently has partnerships with more than 50 companies, including Adidas, Snapchat and Professional Bull Riders. Those companies cover the costs of videographers to record a student-athlete’s games and events in exchange for access to the athletes through the app. Those player highlights recordings are then made available on the company’s platform.
Athletes are not charged for the recordings. Recruiters from colleges around the country can access the recordings once they’re posted. The SEQL platform gives student-athletes better visibility by allowing them to promote themselves. Amateur athletes can now earn money through name, image and likeness deals (NIL) and many high-profile student-athletes are earning millions of dollars.
“The age of social media is here,” Drayton said in an October podcast interview. “Athletes have to be able to brand themselves.”
On the platform, athletes can post events that they are hosting and can charge for private training sessions. They can also promote brand deals and announcements with sponsors.
“What we want to do is extend the lifetime value of our user and essentially provide a solutions platform for the next-generation athlete, providing a value add at every stage of their career,” de Wolf told Richmond Inno in a previous article.
SEQL says it has 500,000 athletes on the platform. The company claims its platform reaches 250 million people.
