Religion of Sports Media, a media venture co-founded by Tom Brady, Michael Strahan and filmmaker Gotham Chopra, has raised $10M to "produce more video and audio content, including content it plans to finance on its own," according to Sahil Patel of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The company, which has produced sports documentaries for Apple, Facebook and Showtime, among others, said that it "wants to build a full-fledged video and audio media business, create new revenue streams and expand internationally." Religion of Sports execs said that they are "expanding their network of athletes and filmmakers to work with on projects, some of which the company will finance by itself." Religion of Sports CEO Ameeth Sankaran said that with the new capital, the L.A.-based company "will produce more content of different lengths and in different formats." He added that while selling and producing projects for outside distribution partners "will remain a part of the company's business plan, it also intends to self-finance projects so it can own more of the underlying rights and create additional revenue streams through content licensing, merchandising and other means." The $10M Series A round is "backed by Elysian Park, LinkinFirm and existing investors Courtside Ventures and media mogul Shari Redstone's Advancit Capital." Religion of Sports, which previously raised $3M in seed money, "declined to disclose a valuation" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/23).
