U.K. podcaster producer Goalhanger, cofounded by Gary Lineker, has expanded its business with the creation of a ventures arm, kicking it off with an investment in Invisible Media and a commercial pact with Backyard Cricket.
Goalhanger Ventures was created to back creator-led media businesses with strong potential across video, social, audio, live, and commercial platforms. Invisible Media is home to the digital media platform The Invisible Hand. Founded by Charlie Tymon, it covers the worlds of economics, business, geopolitics, and culture.
“Goalhanger has built a strong track record of bringing together audiences around intelligent, accessible conversation across politics, history and entertainment,” Tymon said. “With The Invisible Hand, we’ve already shown that younger U.K. audiences are engaging at scale with content about macroeconomics, business and geopolitics, proving there is a real appetite for serious ideas when they are delivered with clarity, energy and purpose. Through this investment, we’ll be able to draw on Goalhanger’s expertise in building, scaling and monetizing industry-leading IP as we grow a brilliantly aligned, YouTube-first business with huge potential.”
Backyard Cricket is an emerging sports creator brand. Goalhanger is partnering with the venture, led by brothers James and Mark Wood, to provide funding and strategic support to scale production, longer-form video, commercial partnerships, sponsorship, and merchandise. Both sides will share in the commercial upside.
Navid Behroozi, EP 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.”
The Wood brothers added, “Backyard Cricket started with us playing in the garden, arguing over close calls and sending decisions upstairs for DRS. It was never meant to be too serious, but we’ve always taken the cricket seriously. 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.”
Jack Davenport, co-founder of Goalhanger, added: “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.”
