Sequoia invests in Singapore-based martial arts media firm One Championship

Burmese mixed martial arts fighter Aung La N Sang. Photo credit: One Championship.

Sequoia India and Mission Holdings co-led the series C financing round of One Championship, the firms announced yesterday.

One Championship is a sports media company based in Singapore, specializing in Asia’s martial arts scene. It runs a mixed martial arts world championship tournament and stages events across Asia. It has broadcast deals with major TV channels like FOX Sports, ABS-CBN, and others.

The size of this round wasn’t disclosed, but One Championship’s total funding now reportedly stands at US$100 million.

Venture capital firm Sequoia is mostly known for its investments in the tech sector, contributing to the growth of firms like WhatsApp, PayPal, and LinkedIn. It’s India branch funded companies like Freecharge, health tech startup Practo, Indonesia’s Tokopedia, and Go-Jek.

A media and events company may seem like an unusual portfolio addition, but the firm’s investment track record already spans well beyond tech. Sequoia India invests in a craft beer company, cosmetics, even a coffee shop chain.

Passion and culture

Apparently, Sequoia India partner Shailendra Singh met One Championship founder and CEO Chatri Sityodtong just 10 weeks ago. Singh says he appreciated the passion, values, and culture of the company. He mentioned his investment decision in a tweet yesterday.

Sequoia India partner Shailendra Singh commented on the One Championship investment yesterday in a tweet.

Sports and tech

Asian sports are seeing increasing overlap with the tech sector. In Indonesia, home-grown unicorn Go-Jek, which is also backed by Sequoia, sponsors One Championship fighters.

Along with local ticket booking site Traveloka, Go-Jek also supports Indonesia’s national soccer league.

Sports content is also finding new distribution channels outside of television thanks to tech. Video streaming site Iflix, a Netflix competitor in Southeast Asia, recently introduced sports live streaming on its app.

We’ve reached out to Sequoia India to learn more about the investment decision and how it plans to support One Championship’s growth.