Goalhanger has launched Goalhanger Ventures, an investment and partnerships arm created to back creator-led media businesses with potential across video, social, audio, live and commercial platforms.
Its first activity includes an equity investment in Invisible Media, the company behind fast-growing digital media platform The Invisible Hand, and a new commercial partnership with Backyard Cricket, one of the UK’s fast emerging sports creator brands.
The company said the launch marks the next stage it its evolution as “a modern, platform-agnostic media company, supporting ambitious digital-first creators with strong editorial identities, highly engaged communities and clear routes to growth.”
Invisible Media, founded by Charlie Tymon (pictured), is a digital media platform built around the idea that “curiosity is the gateway to understanding the world”. Its videos unpack the forces shaping modern life, from markets and money to global power and national economies.
Tymon said: “Goalhanger has built a strong track record of bringing together audiences around intelligent, accessible conversation across politics, history and entertainment. With The Invisible Hand, we’ve already shown that younger UK audiences are engaging at scale with content about macroeconomics, business and geopolitics, proving there is a real appetite for serious ideas when delivered with clarity, energy and purpose. Through this investment, we’ll be able to draw on Goalhanger’s expertise in building, scaling and monetising industry-leading IP as we grow a brilliantly aligned, YouTube-first business with huge potential.”
Backyard Cricket is a cricket content brand created by Yorkshire brothers James and Mark Wood. The pair began making videos in their family garden during lockdown and have since built a major following, travelling around the world to create cricket content that blends humour, personality and a genuine love of the game.
Goalhanger will provide funding and strategic support to help Backyard Cricket grow across production, longer-form video, commercial partnerships, sponsorship and merchandise, with both sides sharing in the commercial upside.
Navid Behroozi, executive producer at Backyard Cricket, said: “James and Mark have already done the hardest part: they have earned a huge amount of attention by making cricket feel fun, personal and culturally relevant online. Our job now is to help turn that momentum into a more sustainable business around the content. By giving them more production support and helping open up new commercial opportunities, we can let them spend more time doing what their audience comes for – creating brilliant cricket entertainment.”
Goalhanger Ventures builds on the company’s wider commitment to developing the next generation of digital media talent, following the launch of The Accelerator in January. The Accelerator offers selected creators investment, training, mentorship and access to Goalhanger’s editorial, creative and commercial leadership, creating a pathway from short-form digital talent into longer-form IP and sustainable media careers.
Jack Davenport, co-founder of Goalhanger, said: “Goalhanger Ventures is about giving exceptional creator-led businesses the infrastructure to grow without losing what made them special in the first place. Invisible Media and Backyard Cricket are very different propositions, but they both have that rare combination of editorial clarity, audience trust and genuine momentum. Our role is to help them scale thoughtfully, commercially and creatively, while protecting the independence, personality and quality that their communities respond to.”
