Minute Media, the BlackRock and Goldman Sachs-backed sports media company behind Sports Illustrated, just closed its biggest acquisition yet - scooping up Mumbai-based AI startup VideoVerse for around $250 million. The deal gives Minute Media's 200 million monthly users access to AI that can automatically extract highlights from sports footage, potentially reshaping how fans consume content across leagues from the NFL to cricket's IPL.
Minute Media just made the biggest bet in its history on AI-powered sports content. The BlackRock and Goldman Sachs-backed media company announced Monday it's acquiring VideoVerse, an Indian startup that uses artificial intelligence to automatically extract highlights and create content from sports footage, in a deal valued around $250 million.
The acquisition immediately transforms Minute Media from a traditional sports publisher into an AI-first content creation powerhouse. VideoVerse's technology already processes footage for major properties including the Indian Premier League, FIFA+, and broadcasters like Nippon TV, generating $65 million in annual revenue with healthy 35-40% EBITDA margins.
"VideoVerse's acquisition is the biggest for the company in terms of both value and company size," Minute Media CEO Asaf Peled told TechCrunch. The deal dwarfs previous acquisitions including The Players' Tribune, Fansided, and Mental Floss.
Founded in 2016 by Vinayak Shrivastav, VideoVerse initially built AI tools for diverse applications - from detecting smoking scenes for India's film censor board to identifying products in e-commerce videos. But the company pivoted entirely to sports when streaming platform Hotstar (now owned by Jio) needed technology to identify key moments in cricket matches.
"In 2016, Hotstar was growing, and they were looking for a solution that could identify certain action points in sports and primarily in cricket," Shrivastav explained about the company's sports journey. That pivot proved prescient - VideoVerse has since raised $105 million from investors including Bluestone Equity Partners and A91 Partners.
The timing couldn't be better. Multiple industry reports suggest fans increasingly demand dynamic, mobile-first content beyond traditional broadcast coverage. VideoVerse's platform operates like a SaaS tool, charging based on hours of footage processed, but recent updates let broadcasters create sophisticated automated content packages.
