PRESS RELEASE AT HELGSTRAND DRESSAGE
With a common vision to create the world’s leading digital equestrian community, Helgstrand and Zibrasport have signed a cooperation that secures Helgstrand a 10% ownership of Zibrasport Equest. The community that live streams from some of the largest equestrian events and creates inspiring video content, articles and lots more is in enormous development. The ambition of the partnership is to create new digital solutions to the equestrian world and new ways to engage the community and then of course the opportunity to invite people behind the scenes in one of the world’s leading equestrian companies – Helgstrand.
Up close in the equestrian world
Zibrasport Equest has been streaming equestrian events in Denmark since 2016 and in December 2019 the company expanded to become an equestrian community – zibrasportequest.com. The ambition is to create a community with a broad variety of relevant content that gives the equestrian world the opportunity to engage themselves and become inspired to even more engagement in their sport. The opportunity to come closer and think in new ways are also part of the ambitions that Helgstrand has for the future.
- We have been ambitious from the start and has created an internationally leading company in the equestrian world. To secure our ongoing growth, we have a strong wish to become more visible and create more openness about our company and the equestrian world in general and therefore we have chosen to invest in Zibrasport. The community is built on a business model with international potential, where we both can invite customers and equestrians into our facilities and to events and be a part of focusing on the equestrian world and developing new and innovative solutions, the CEO of Helgstrand, Andreas Helgstrand says.
Innovation and engagement
It is not only from the saddle that you can engage yourself in the equestrian sport. That is the philosophy of Zibrasport Equest, where you already at this stage can find numerous videos from the largest events, get closer to the leading profiles and riders and find inspiration and be fascinated from the variety of the equestrian sport. The community has an ongoing development and believes that the best development is created together with the users.
- A community is created by both the users themselves and their engagement and from the editorial content. We are constantly thinking out of the box and are not afraid to explore new and creative ways. Therefore, it is also a very good reason that we are teaming up with an innovative partner such as Helgstrand to create the worlds best and most innovative equestrian community. We share the ambition to create a healthy company and the passion to create something that strengthen and develop the equestrian sport. In fact, we are already in the middle of creating our next digital solution together with Helgstrand, says Niels Zibrandtsen, the chairman and owner of Zibrasport.
An independent community
Zibrasport Equest is still an independent community that offers content and streaming from every corner of the equestrian world. The corporation will offer unique insight into Helgstrand, such as streaming from the events at Helgstrand and lots of quality content, that is produced in cooperation with the staff in Northern Jutland and Wellington.
- Zibrasport Equest is a community where you always can find inspiration and insight - no matter your interests in the equestrian world or which inspiration you seek. The community must be created in cooperation with riders, equestrians, partners and federations across the equestrian sport and therefore the cooperation with Helgstrand does not exclude cooperation with others – on the contrary. Helgstrand shares the ambition to create value for the equestrian sport and find new collaborations to develop new and innovative solutions and therefore we believe that together we can create a strong and engaging community. It is also fantastic that we can invite the users into the world of Helgstrand because we know that the interest is enormous, says Rikke Højgaard, editor in chief at Zibrasport Equest.
A strong partnership
It is two strong and innovative partners that stands behind Zibrasport Equest. The digital media was established in 2016 under Zibra A/S, that has the entrepreneur Niels Zibrandtsen in the lead. Zibrandtsen established the company GlobalConnect, which he sold in 2016, and after this he dedicated himself to invest in and develop new startup companies.
Helgstrand was established in 2008 by Andreas Helgstrand, medalist from both the Olympics and World Championships. Since the establishment the company in Northern Jutland has evolved rapidly. It went so well that the Dutch investment fund Waterland Private Equity bought the majority part of the company in 2018. Helgstrand buys and train dressage horses to sell all over the world and the company now has divisions in both Germany and in Wellington, Florida.