Pro Climbing League Raises €3.8Mn in Seed Funding to Take Professional Climbing Global

The funding round was led by Redrice Ventures, with participation from The International Bouldering Alliance, Active Partners and Accelerate Ventures.

According to PCL, this is one of the first times that institutional investors have backed a climbing competition or media business. Earlier investments in the sport have mainly focused on climbing gyms.

“Climbing deserves a league worthy of the athletes, the audience and the culture. There are few sports with such committed and passionate fans. Climbing has been crying out for an easy-to-follow format with entertainment value, held in the cities where climbers actually live. London proved the appetite is there, and with our investors’ backing we’re excited to take PCL global and bring a new level of connection and competition to the sport,” said Markey, CEO and co-founder at PCL.

Alistair Brownlee, Associate Partner at Redrice Ventures, said, ”Indoor climbing has gone from a subculture to a global phenomenon, with mass participation, Olympic status and growing media recognition. Last year I was at PCL’s first London event, which sold out and brought world-class athletes together with global media distribution. Today’s climbers don’t just want to take part in their sport. They want to compete in it and watch it, and that’s an audience with real commercial value.”

Pro Climbing League (PCL) was founded by Danaan Markey and Charlie Boscoe. Markey previously worked as a German national team climbing coach and sports marketer at Patagonia, while Boscoe is an experienced climber and commentator. The company also has two co-founders, Neil Wyatt, former Head of Live Events at BBC Radio, and Eelco Bulten, who has experience in building and growing startups.

PCL runs climbing competitions and media events using a head-to-head knockout format. In each match, two climbers compete side by side on identical bouldering walls. The first athlete to reach the top moves on to the next round.

The competition format is designed to make climbing easier to watch and understand, both at live events and on television. It removes some of the complexity of traditional climbing competitions, making the sport more interesting for new viewers.

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