Hudl Raises $72.5M Led by Accel and Nelnet to Change the Face of Sports

LINCOLN, Neb. – Hudl, the sports video analysis platform, today announced $72.5 million in funding, marking the company’s first major institutional investment. With more than 3.5 million professional, college and amateur athletes in 40 countries, Hudl is the world’s most utilized video recording, editing, distribution and analysis tool for coaches, athletes and recruiters. The round was led by Accel and Nelnet, with participation from Jeff Raikes, former president of Microsoft Business and CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Hudl is powering a radical transition away from expensive video equipment and editing processes. Instead, Hudl democratizes access to high-quality video analysis by making it easy and affordable to capture professional-grade video, apply proven editing and coaching tools and share seamlessly across devices.

• Coaches can share videos, notes and scouting reports with other coaches and players via iOS and Android apps.
• Athletes can access Hudl via their mobile device to study film, share highlights, and update personal profiles available to both recruiters and fans.
• Recruiters can filter through millions of athlete profiles from all over the world to find highlights and academic information on prospects, putting college scholarships within reach for millions of athletes from all over the world.
• Communities of families, friends and fans can share highlights, keep tabs on their favorite players, and access 5 million+ hours of content available only on Hudl.

User Quotes

“Hudl has changed the way coaches and athletes at all levels prepare. The availability of film on tablets, laptops and phones has increased and improved their ability to study the opponent ten-fold – with as fast as things move in the recruiting game, every minute counts,” said Mike Bloomgren, Director of Offense, Stanford University football program. “Hudl allows coaches to put an athlete’s film in the right hands with just a few clicks. The burden and cost have been greatly reduced.”

“Hudl has helped us in a big way over the past six seasons. We were one of the very early Hudl customers, and we realized right away the unique value it could provide us in connecting with our current student athletes,” said Mark Helfrich, head football coach at the University of Oregon. “We’ve seen the product continue to evolve, and we’re excited for what’s to come.”

Other Quotes

“From day one, we’ve built Hudl to meet the massive demand for a platform that makes it simple to record, share and analyze video. The funding allows us to continue investing aggressively in our product, pursue acquisitions to offer new tools and enhancements to our users, and further bolster our team,” said David Graff, CEO of Hudl. “We are a proud Nebraska company, and we are excited to grow our teams in Lincoln, Omaha, Boston, London and several more cities to come.”

“With tens of thousands of youth, high school, college and professional teams, millions of viewers, and millions of hours of content, the team at Hudl has built an easy-to-use platform that is the standard across all sports,” said Mike Dunlap, executive chairman of Nelnet and current Hudl board member. “We are excited to continue our support of a tremendous Nebraska company as it continues to expand its offering and build a world-class team.”

“At Accel we get really excited about platforms with global reach, where sharing and network effects are inherent in the use case. And, we continue to see a massive worldwide market for high-quality video, delivered at a fraction of the traditional cost. Coaches and athletes quite literally ‘live’ in Hudl – it’s where they have to be to study, share, improve and win,” said Miles Clements, principal at Accel. “David, Brian and John represent the type of entrepreneurs we love – authentic bootstrappers passionate about creating a technology that helps millions of people communicate, collaborate and succeed.”

By the Numbers

• 3.5 million users
• 1 billion video clips cataloged
• More than 100,000 teams across 30 sports
• 13 of 20 Premier League football clubs
• 40 countries served

About Hudl

Hudl is a leading software company changing the way coaches and athletes train to stay ahead of the competition, offering video distribution, play diagrams, individual analysis and more, securely available online. Thousands of programs, from the smallest youth teams, to high schools, elite colleges and professional teams, rely on Hudl’s software to give them the competitive edge they need to succeed. Founded by David Graff, Brian Kaiser and John Wirtz in 2006, Hudl was created to meet the evolving demands of coaches.

About Accel

Accel is a leading early and growth-stage venture capital firm, powering a global community of entrepreneurs. Accel backs entrepreneurs who have what it takes to build a world-class, category-defining business. Founded in 1983, Accel brings more than three decades of experience building and supporting hundreds of companies. Accel’s vision for entrepreneurship and business enables it to identify and invest in the companies that will be responsible for the growth of next-generation industries. Accel-backed companies include Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, Dropbox, Dropcam, Facebook, Flipkart, Lookout Security, MoPub, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Vox Media and others. Visit www.accel.com for more or@Accel on Twitter.

About Nelnet

Headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, Nelnet (NYSE: NNI) provides innovative educational services in loan servicing, payment processing, education planning, and asset management. These products and services help students and families plan, prepare, and pay for their education while making the administrative and financial processes more efficient for schools and financial organizations. For more information, visit www.nelnet.com.