14 DAY TRIAL // Sports blog and community site SB Nation has managed to secure $7 million in funding from several investors. Run by former AOL executive Jim Bankoff, the startup has received a total of $7.95 million in this second round of funding with Comcast Interactive Capital, Comcast's venture capital investment arm, leading along with Accel, Allen & Co and Ted Leonsis which already had stakes in the company.
The new round puts SB Nation at a $30 million valuation according to the All Things Digital blog citing sources close to the transaction. Part of the money will be destined for the founders and early employees, leaving only $7 million for actual funding. Leading investor Comcast Interactive Capital will also get board membership, with David Zilberman getting a seat.
The company had previously raised $5 million last year from Accel Partners Allen & Co., Ted Leonsis, Dan Rosensweig, Jeff Weiner, Brent Jones, and Providence Equity Partners for which Bankoff was an advisor. The first round of funding spurred considerable growth for the company, further consolidated after Jim Bankoff joined it in fall last year as chairman and CEO. The sports site now boasts unique visitors in the single-digit millions. The site also managed to strike a deal with Yahoo with SB Nation content and links now featured in relevant pages at Yahoo Sports sites.
The site was created in 2003 by DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas and others and the Washington DC-based company now has over 200 sites and blogs for local teams from a variety of sports. It has been pushing to replace newspapers for local content but also has national coverage one some of its numerous blogs. It is now headed by Jim Bankoff, coming from a long line of positions at AOL involved in products like TMZ.com, Netscape, MapQuest, AIM and others.