Two years ago, Jason Glickman stepped down as the CEO and executive chairman of Tremor Media, a company he co-founded back in 2005 and helped to grow into one of the largest video ad networks on the Web. After Tremor Media merged with ScanScout at the end of 2010, Glickman stepped down and began working on a new media project, this time focusing on sports.
The new project, called Connected Sports Ventures, aimed to address the way we consume sports media content, leveraging the new popularity of “second screen experiences” to connect the realtime chatter of social media with the action happening on the big screen. After releasing their first two apps this summer, RumbleTV Baseball and RumbleTV Football, Glickman and company have since added some coin to their coffers to expand into the other major sports.
According to SEC docs filed this weekend, Connected Sports Ventures has raised $4.3 million in outside funding, led by Rich Levandov of Avalon Ventures. We’ve since confirmed the raise and the fact that Levandov will be joining the startup’s board of directors. The company isn’t yet ready to share the full details, but Glickman did say that the company will be using its new capital to expand its technology platform to other major sports.
When Ryan covered Connected Sports Ventures last year, Glickman had recently been joined by co-founders Tim Walling (a former engineer at Brightcove) and Bertrand Navarette, who had previously worked as VP of acquisitions at Internet Capital Group. At the time, Connected Sports had eight employees and, judging by its Jobs Page, the company is looking to add to that total in the coming months.
According to AngelList, the startup’s previous investors include Sam Thompson, who previously ran Client Relations at IGN and Nick MacShane, the founder of Progress Partners and Progress Ventures. Both McShane and Thompson invested through Progress Ventures.
Beyond that, Connected Sports is building mobile apps that aim to deliver realtime gaming experiences that support live TV viewing. RumbleTV Baseball, for example, creates a single-player fantasy experience in which users can play, chat and tweet at friends, pick the outcome of plays (and entire games), and follow their favorite players. It also encourages the requisite smack talking, replacing SMS and IM conversations, with easy in-app tweeting and messaging.
In the same vein as Topps’ new apps, Chadwick, ESPN’s recent releases, as well as those from BleacherReport and Evri (with SportStream), Connected Sports Ventures is playing in what has become a hot and fast-growing space for sports fans.
We’ll update when Glickman and team are ready to say more. Find Connected Sports Ventures’ first apps here.