Shorts: Patrick Bamford, Elta, Formula E

Hylo, an athletic footwear start-up based in the UK, has raised £2.5m in its latest funding round. The round was led by Eka Ventures, with participation from Redrice Ventures and angel investors including Leeds United and England footballer Patrick Bamford.

Hylo uses materials science to create running shoes that deliver high performance for athletes and low impact for the planet. The brand’s launch shoe is vegan, uses renewable materials, is recyclable and has a 52% lower carbon footprint compared with the average running shoe.

Broadcaster Elta TV has acquired rights in Taiwan for the English Premier League for the next three seasons.

Elta operates linear pay-television channels and a streaming platform. It is one of Taiwan’s leading sports broadcasters, with a content portfolio including rights for, domestic T1 League basketball, the FIFA World Cup, the Olympics, the NBA, Badminton World Federation events, World Table Tennis, UEFA club competitions, Italian Serie A football, and the Scottish Premiership.

Formula E has announced the return of the Formula E: Accelerate esports competition and launched the official application process.

The ‘Road to the London Final’ qualification series will take place online alongside in-person qualifiers in the week leading up to selected ABB FIA Formula E World Championship E-Prix races. Formula E will then host the Accelerate Final in-person during the London E-Prix weekend.

A new London-based sports production agency has launched. 8000and1 will be operating across all the traditional long and short form areas of media production within the sporting world.

8000and1 Manager, Ben Jones, said, “Sport is the fastest growing area of production globally, and with two major football tournaments this year, the Women’s Euros and the World Cup, now seemed like the perfect time to open a new company focussing solely on sport.”