After 5000 streamed events, 10 million users, and becoming the top-grossing app in the world across all categories a few months ago, FITE’s sports streaming platform has been acquired by TrillerNet, the parent company of AI-powered social video app Triller.
FITE started as a product of Bulgarian Flipps Media back in 2016 and following a period of fast growth, it attracted funding from Sofia-based VC firms LAUNCHub Ventures and BrightCap Ventures, next to prominent international investors like Tim Draper and Earlybird Digital East.
Kosta Jordanov, co-founder and CEO of FITE shares that now the former startup will become the exclusive global digital distributor of all Triller Fight Club events and will look forward to bringing Triller’s significant user base and promotional clout to all the major events carried on the FITE platform.
FITE’s platform has already streamed some of the biggest names in combat sports, including Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Mike Tyson, and Tyson Fury, while the company’s partner network features key brands in the industry such as Top Rank, AEW, PBC, ONE Championship, and WWE.
The deal gives Triller a major foothold in the live-event PPV and streaming space, greatly expanding the reach of Triller’s fast-growing AI-powered content and distribution ecosystem and allowing the company to continue to invest in new lifestyle and entertainment programming. “FITE is the perfect long-form platform for Triller to continue releasing its cultural content spanning fighting, sports, fashion, music, and pop culture. We have officially completed our 360-degree content engine with this acquisition,” shares Ryan Kavanaugh, co-owner of Triller, as the company also announced the purchase of marketing platform Amplify.ai. Reuters reports that the value of all of TrillerNet’s acquisitions in the past 18 months is about $250M.
This is exit number 7 for LAUNCHub Ventures, the second for this year, and the largest one to date. “We never had any doubts about Kosta’s strong and focused leadership and his ability to build a world-class team. Being a partner in their journey, we witnessed their passion for becoming the worldwide leader in sports delivery and were impressed with their resilience to pursue their goals. We could not be happier for the great outcome, which is one of the largest exits in the local ecosystem,” shares Lyuben Belov, Partner at LAUNCHub Ventures.
