Sports production company Keemotion has been acquired by a consortium of investors led by David Abrams, a retired partner from US private equity firm Apollo Global Management.
Keemotion said its new ownership group consists of individuals with ownership interests in sports, media, and marketing companies, as well as co-ownership of an NBA basketball franchise.
Abrams, the founder of the Apollo European Principal Finance Fund franchise, is the co-managing owner of the Scranton/Wilke-Barre RailRiders, an affiliate team of MLB baseball outfit the New York Yankees. EMC, a merchant bank formed in 2008 in partnership with Creative Artists Agency, has taken a minority ownership stake in the company and will serve as an operational and business development advisor to Keemotion.
Georges Caron, chief executive of Keemotion, said: “Our new partners bring substantial industry expertise and a wide range of meaningful relationships to Keemotion. The additional capital will dramatically accelerate our growth and allow us to better serve our existing customers, and be a solutions provider for the sports production industry.”
Founded in 2012, Keemotion is a technology company that has developed a capability for the autonomous live production of sporting events, eliminating the need for an on-site production team, director, or camera operator.
Keemotion currently produces basketball games and other sporting events for professional leagues, colleges and universities and high schools in nine countries – the US, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Finland, Belgium, the UK and the Netherlands.
The company’s European customers include French basketball league the LNB, Bayern Munich, the Austrian Basketball League and the Finnish Basketball Association. Keemotion’s U.S. presence includes producing games for several Division-I college basketball programs, including Northwestern University of the Big Ten Conference.