AI-driven sports highlights platform WSC Sports announced the closing of a $100 million Series D round, and intends to put the funding toward rapid growth and expansion, as well as further recruitment of employees in Israel as well as its New York, Sydney and London offices. The round was led by ION Crossover Partners, with Intel Capital, O.G. Tech and Detroit Venture Partners also participating.
WSC Sports’ proprietary platform utilizes AI technology to evaluate events in sports games, then create and distribute sports highlights for hundreds of leagues and partners around the world, including the NBA, NHL, ESPN, YouTube TV, Bundesliga, FIBA, Tencent and Bleacher Report.
Daniel Shichman, the company’s CEO and co-founder, elaborated on the importance of being able to rapidly churn out short-form content. “With new consumption habits moving at a rapid pace, short-form video has become a key component in user acquisition, retention and monetization,” he said, “and our new products that were launched during 2021 for broadcasters, OTT providers and sports betting operators demonstrate the scale and variety of use-cases our platform supports
The platform was used in 2021 to create over three million highlights; its success has led investors to readily endorse the technology. “We have been following WSC’s progress over the last two years and found the team’s vision and execution highly impressive, said Gilad Shany, ICP’s managing partner. “Content is king, and we view sports content as one of the crown jewels of the digital age.”
WSC Sports is a member of Israel’s rapidly growing AI sector. Earlier this month, Artificial Intelligence researchers and developers from across the country gathered digitally at AI Week 2022, a three-day conference dedicated to the advancement, utilization and proper ethical use of AI technology in the modern tech climate.
The nation’s interest in the technology extends beyond the start-up bubble. In November 2021, Israel joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), an initiative created in 2019 aiming to support research and applied activities in the AI space in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
The previous year, Israel joined the Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI), a global AI initiative committed to investigating the legal framework for the development and application of AI technology.
“AI is the dominant technology of the next five, ten years,” according to Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel, a preeminent figure in Israel’s technological development and the author of Israel’s national AI plan.
“Israel is capable of being one of the global hubs for AI technology, as we are for cyber technology.”