Lineker-backed Goalhanger launches venture arm and makes first creator investments

Goalhanger has launched Goalhanger Ventures, a new investment and partnerships unit aimed at taking stakes in creator-led media businesses and helping them scale across video, audio, live events and commercial partnerships.The move formalises a strategy Goalhanger has been building through its creator support work, positioning the company as both a studio and an investor as it looks to diversify revenues and deepen its role in the creator economy.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 already respond to.”Goalhanger Ventures’ first equity investment is in Invisible Media, the company founded by Charlie Tymon behind The Invisible Hand, a YouTube-first brand focused on accessible video storytelling around economics, business, geopolitics and culture.Tymon said: “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.”The unit has also agreed a partnership with Backyard Cricket, the cricket creator brand co-founded by Yorkshire brothers James and Mark Wood, which will receive funding and strategic support to expand across production, long-form video and commercial partnerships.James and Mark Wood said: “The last few years have been mad for the channel, and it’s been brilliant seeing how far the game travels. Working with Goalhanger gives us the chance to build on that and keep growing Backyard Cricket even further.”The strategy reflects a wider shift in independent media towards owning stakes in breakout creators rather than relying only on advertising and distribution, with studios seeking to participate in upside from IP, sponsorship, merchandise and live formats.Goalhanger has grown rapidly through its portfolio of chart-leading shows, with the business also running a creator mentorship and development programme, The Accelerator, launched earlier this year to provide selected creators with investment, training and access to editorial and commercial leadership.Goalhanger Ventures is expected to pursue further deals that fit its thesis around strong editorial identity, highly engaged communities and clear routes to monetisation, with the unit positioned as a long-term platform rather than a one-off fund.