MaxPreps lands new venture cash
Jul 19, 2006

Sacramento Business Journal

High-school sports specialist MaxPreps Inc. has landed $7 million in a second round of venture capital financing, including a follow-on investment by DFJ Frontier of West Sacramento, MaxPreps said Wednesday.

MaxPreps, a Cameron Park company launched in 2003, publishes detailed high school sports information at MaxPreps.com, an online home for prep sports news, scores, statistics, photos, video and rankings. The company aggregates its sports information from a network of thousands of high school coaches, professional photographers and freelance writers.

Also Wednesday, MaxPreps announced that ESPN and MaxPreps will share high school football content on their respective Web sites.

Last August, equipped with $2.25 million in fresh venture capital with participation from lead investor DFJ Frontier, MaxPreps was lining up new deals and services ranging from a Webcast national highlights show to a software program that would write game stories. One supporter predicted MaxPreps would become the Internet equivalent of ESPN sports TV.

MaxPreps' latest funding comes from lead investor Dolphin Equity Partners of New York City, Stamford, Conn.-based BEV Capital and DFJ Frontier.

With the $7 million, MaxPreps plans to expand marketing and distribution, add new senior management, and expand business development efforts.

MaxPreps also announced that Salvatore Tirabassi of Dolphin Equity Partners and Mike Majors of BEV Capital will join MaxPreps' board of directors, which will expand to seven members.

"We've spent the last few years building a nationwide content network to create a single source for high school sports information," said Andy Beal, MaxPreps' chief executive officer, in a prepared statement. "Now, with the capital and expertise provided by our new investors, we're going to extend the reach of MaxPreps and continue to build agreements with other top-tier information properties like our recent deal with ESPN."

MaxPreps' agreement with ESPN aims to improve coverage of high school football on both companies' Web sites through an exchange of content and promotional support.

Beginning in late August, ESPN.com and MaxPreps.com will team up to cover prep athletes and athletics, including information about football, basketball (boys and girls), and baseball at more than 17,000 schools from all 50 states, according to ESPN.

Previously, MaxPreps has developed content and promotional agreements with USA Today and the NFL. MaxPreps also works with local newspapers to enhance presentation of high school sports information. Clients have included the Los Angeles Times, Arizona Republic, Star Tribune of Minneapolis and Detroit News.