Fantasy Sports Startup Sleeper Raises $40 mln In Series C Funding

Sleeper, a fantasy sports startup based in San-Francisco, has raised $40 million in Series C funding to expand its platform in the United States.

The funding round was co-led by General Partners David George and Andrew Chen on behalf of Andreessen Horowitz, one of the biggest venture capitalist firms. In addition to the financial giant, all of Sleeper’s major existing investors also participated in this funding round, reflecting their trust in the startup’s mission. Andrew Chen referred to the firm’s participation by stating:

“Sleeper’s multiplayer experience is all about helping sports fans connect with their friends, leading to strong engagement, retention, and organic growth–similar to what we can see on social apps. I’m thrilled my partners leading the a16z growth fund wanted to invest further as the Sleeper team builds the go-to sporting community.”

Being considered by many as one of the fastest-growing fantasy sports startups in the U.S, Sleeper has attracted a great deal of attention in the world’s fantasy sports industry. Founded in 2018, the startup has succeeded in being one of the top 50 retention apps while also more than doubling its user base to more than 3 million over the past year. Nan Wang, CEO of Sleeper, proudly referred to this success by saying:

“Our mission from day one has been to bring people together through sports and that’s what we’re seeing happening inside of our app. Typically, when a product doubles its user base, engagement goes down. That hasn’t been the case for Sleeper. As we’ve exceeded our own growth expectations this year, our engagement has gone up. Sleeper is more than a fantasy sports app, it’s a place to hang out with your friends, and it’s for that reason that our users stay active and keep coming back.”

In the near future, the startup will continue the expansion of its gaming offerings while developing its new Wallet feature, which will allow users to sync their preferred payment methods with the platform. The fantasy sports startup expects these efforts to help it sustain its organic growth by facilitating access to new and existing users.