The truth is in there – Video game coaching – XR wellness and digital psychedelics – Movement analysis systems – Sleep-tracking – Social fitness apps – Edge Computing – PIF galore
Week 32
Skin In The Game is a weekly newsletter dedicated to investing in sports. We highlight the startups and investors shaping the future of sports and its adjacent markets.
We also run a regulated startup investment club connecting investors with visionary sports, health, and entertainment startups – a platform for investors, founders, and industry experts to collaborate and co-invest.
We’re raising capital to ramp up the business. Get in touch if you want to find out more.
Confessions
I recently spoke with a friend who’s exploring setting up a venture fund. The call was supposed to be a catch up, but morphed into an impromptu brand discovery session in which we kicked around the importance of building a strong, differentiated thesis, with a clear sense of purpose.
I mentioned this to gifted strategist and fellow SportsTech aficionado Scott Newell, and he helped to clarify the way purpose actually works. It can’t be reverse-engineered around a market need. It has to come from deep within. When purpose, people, positioning, product, and pipes are aligned, something magical happens. Somewhat annoyingly in a world where time is literally money, that process of alignment cannot be rushed.
In Mahendra Ramsinghani’s incredible textbook on venture capital he quotes Mercury Fund’s Adrian Fortino as saying that he spent a year developing his own investment theme. Obviously that’s a luxury that most emerging VCs cannot afford, but I admire that kind of intellectual rigour.
Most funds don’t have a purpose, other than making money. Some might have a thesis, but more often than not, it’s a cut and paste job. When most theses are the same – or eerily familiar – they lack meaning. A case in point is impact investing, which is becoming increasingly crowded and generic. That’s not to say that this space isn’t important (it’s very important) – it’s simply that most funds don’t have a clear way of executing and articulating their desire to have an impact.
As an investor, your thesis is how you make your purpose happen. It’s a way of filtering out shiny things that would otherwise distract you from your mission. Or, even better, filtering in the right things. The other day I connected with a lovely fellow who’s building a new impact investing business and I was blown away by his thesis. He said:
“We’re investing in the companies our kids will want work for”.
I love this because it’s emotive and precise. What a brilliant way of breathing life into the all-to-often pompous concept of legacy!
Increasingly, specialist funds are springing up to exploit opportunities in specific sectors (so not just B2C tech, but connected wellness, or blockchain-based gaming, or sports betting). Verticalisation offers founders more than just capital – a singular focus on an industry brings expertise, moral support, network effects, follow on funding from like-minded investors, and a host of other benefits.
It’s not just VCs who need to have a purpose and a thesis with which to execute it. We all do. Having a view on the world is everything. It’s an antidote to chaos; a way of making sense of our surroundings and relating to them; a heuristic for deciding who we spent our time with. What we believe – and crucially, what we do to bring it forth – defines us. Nietzsche observed that:
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
When I started this business I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing. The plan was to spin up an angel syndicate and agnostically invest in tech startups. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve increasingly found agnosticism boring, depressing, and a bit limiting – in the words of Mulder from the X-Files, “I want to believe”.
And so I spent many months driving myself (and my wife) crazy trying to figure out what I believed, and how I could make it happen. The result is Skin In The Game, an investment platform that connects sports investors with industry experts so they can make better investment decisions and scale their impact.
The truth is not out there. It’s in there. My purpose is to help people make better decisions by connecting them with the right expertise. And my thesis is that sports is special. It’s more than an industry – it’s a mythology. As a vehicle for positive impact it is without parallel. By driving investment in technologies that are scaling the reach and relevance of sports, we can make a positive impact on billions of lives. Over time, the thesis has evolved to acknowledge the fluid relationship between sports, health, and entertainment. They ways in which they are different, and they ways in which they’re the same.
Do you have a thesis; a unique take on the world? How did you find it? And what are you going to do to make it happen? I would love to get some conversations going around this and see where our paths might converge.
Deal flow
📱 Alistair Brownlee MBE joins Team GoJoe as investor and ambassador – Alistair Brownlee MBE, multiple world, European and Olympic champion and all-round triathlon legend, has joined GoJoe as an investor and brand ambassador. GoJoe is a social fitness app aiming to transform everyday solo exercise into something more social and meaningful through teams, NFTs and virtual fitness alongside celebrities.
⛓ Blockchain-Based Mobile Gaming eSports Ecosystem Colizeum Closes $8.4M in Funding – Led by renowned investors such as Deribit, SevenX Ventures, Axia8, LD Capital and Genblock Capital, Colizeum, the blockchain-based eSports ecosystem for mobile gaming, closed a round of $8.4 million in its latest fundraiser. Other prominent industry leaders, including TPS Capital, Momentum6 (Lumen Capital Group), DWeb3, X21, Profluent Ventures, Good Games Guild (GGG), CRT Capital, Au21 Capital, Pluto Digital, Basics Capital and Tokenomik.io, also participated in this strongly endorsed financing round.
🎮 Saudi-backed group buys ESL for $1bn – The Savvy Gaming Group, which is backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), has bought the ESL for $1bn. The group has also snapped up popular esports platform Faceit for $500m, and will now merge the two.
🎰 Blockchain-Based Sports Betting Exchange Aver Raises $7.5 Million in Seed Funding – Aver, a sports betting exchange built on the Solana blockchain, has raised a $7.5 million seed funding round. The company’s peer-to-peer betting platform is expected to launch in the second quarter of this year.
🇸🇦 Newcastle’s Saudi owners target more clubs in global plan that mirrors Manchester City – Saudi Arabia’s immensely wealthy Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns 80 per cent of Newcastle, wants to mirror the multi-club approach taken by Manchester City’s Abu Dhabi owners, but is also considering investing in other sports too.
🎮 Metafy lands $25M to scale its gaming coaching platform – Metafy, a startup that operates a marketplace for video game coaching, has closed a $25 million Series A. Tiger Global and Seven Seven Six led the funding round.
🌿 Medical cannabis and psychedelics venture capital firm launches £22m fund – Leafy Tunnel Ltd, an early stage venture capital firm, has announced the first closing of its Guernsey based fund that invests in medical cannabis and psychedelics. The investment strategy of the fund focuses on European medical cannabis and global medical psychedelics companies at Seed and Series A stages.
🏎 Williams Advanced Engineering acquired by FMG for S$220m – Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), a technology focused spin-off of the Williams Racing Formula One team, has been acquired by Australian iron ore producer Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) for £164 million.
🏀 WNBA Eyes Growth After Record $75 Million Raise – The WNBA has closed on $75 million in funding, which the league says is the largest-ever capital raise for a women’s sports property. WNBA sponsorship partner Nike is making a “significant equity investment,” the league said.
🕶 Tripp acquires EvolVR to help more people fly higher in the metaverse – California-based XR wellness and digital psychedelics platform Tripp continues its acquisition path to growth with its acquisition of the world’s largest VR meditation community, EvolVR, following its purchase last year of PsyAssist, a mobile app used by people to keep their psychedelic experiences on track.
💻 KKR To Significantly Invest In PlayOn! Sports – PlayOn! Sports, a high school sports media and technology company, and investment firm KKR reports that KKR will make a significant investment in PlayOn, alongside PlayOn's existing shareholder, Panoramic Ventures, a VC firm.
🎲 Raine Group Leads $16 Million Investment in Esports Betting Startup Midnite – Esports betting platform Midnite has raised a $16 million Series A round led by The Raine Group, whose advisors include former Brooklyn Nets CEO and Turner president David Levy.
⚽️ Arsenal Innovation Lab Selects Eight Fan Experience Startups – A group of eight startups have been selected to the Arsenal Innovation Lab, a seven-week program hosted by the English Premier League club. The club aims to collaborate with startups whose products can improve the fan experience.
📹 Videon Raises Additional $9 Million to Improve Live Streaming Through Edge Computing – Videon has raised a further $9 million bringing total investment in the past seven months to $16.3 million. The funding, led by Alter Venture Partners with participation from Voyager Capital, Fortson VC, Bruce Chizen, and Cercano Management, will drive further innovation in its next-generation video edge computing platform.
🏃♂️ Physimax, a Movement Analysis System Used in Pro Sports, Gets Bought by DarioHealth – DarioHealth, a digital wellness platform supporting people with chronic conditions, acquired Physimax, a movement screening platform in use by a number of elite sports teams.
🇮🇹 Golee, the SaaS solution for the digitisation of Sport Clubs and Federations, aims to attract EUR 800k – Golee, a SaaS solution for the digitization of Sport Clubs and Federations, aims to attract financing worth EUR 800k, with 300k via SeedBlink. The investment round is supported by 7 Investment, the office of Moratti family, former owners of Inter Milan, Maria Lucia Chivilo, and the Italian National VC Fund through a EUR 500k investment.
🏈 NFL Funds Two Universities to Study Cannabis as Pain Management, Concussion Treatment in Football Players – The NFL has awarded $1 million in funding to study the effects of cannabis on pain management, performance and neuroprotection from concussions among football players.
⛓ NFT Startup Unblocked Raises Seed Round At $90 Million Valuation From Tiger Global, Dapper Labs, Jay-Z – Unblocked has raised a $10 million seed round at a $90 million valuation, a high price tag for such an early round – even in crypto. Tiger Global led the investment, which included the maker of NBA Top Shots, Dapper Labs; the singer Shawn Mendes; Jay-Z’s Marcy Ventures Partners; and Oaktree Capital Management.
🧃 Athletic Greens Raises $115M From Alpha Wave Ventures and Strategic Investors to Accelerate Global Growth and Reach Millions of New Customers – Athletic Greens, a foundational nutrition company, announced $115M in new funding led by Alpha Wave Ventures to accelerate its ascent as a dominant global nutrition brand.
😴 Founders Fund seeds sleep-tracking startup – Sleep-tracking startup Earable has raised $6.6 million from lead investor Founders Fund and Smilegate Investment as it prepares to introduce a wearable headset aimed at improving sleep and productivity.
🏠 Casana Closes $30 Million Series B Funding to Accelerate Development of Novel Effortless Home Health Monitoring – Casana’s Series B was led by Morningside. Matrix Partners and Series A investors General Catalyst and Outsiders Fund joined the round. The Heart Seat, a patient-centered health monitoring technology built into a toilet seat, is Casana’s first product.
🍄 Psychedelic Science Leader Eleusis to Become Public Company in Merger with Silver Spike Acquisition Corp. II – Founded in 2013, Eleusis is dedicated to transforming psychedelics into medicines. ELE-Psilo, Eleusis’s lead drug candidate, is being developed to treat depression and is expected to enter Phase I trials in 2022, subject to regulatory authorisation. The tie-up with Silver Spike Acquisition Corp. II is expected to generate gross proceeds of up to $288 million and implies a combined enterprise value of $446 million.
🏋️♀️ Gympass acquires Andjoy and 7Card as it expands European footprint – Gympass, the world’s largest corporate wellbeing platform, announced its acquisition of Andjoy in Spain and 7Card in Romania, both owned by Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services.
🧠 Mantra Health Secures $22M Series A – VMG Partners led the round, with new investors joining the cap table including New Market Venture Partners, Elements Health Ventures, 14W, and Alumni Ventures. Proceeds will help grow the digital mental health clinic's diverse provider network, launch new clinical products, and expand its insurance partnerships.
💼 Lyra Health Completes $235M Funding Round – Lyra Health, the leading provider of innovative Workforce Mental Health solutions for employers, completed a $235M financing. Dragoneer led the round and was joined by new investor Salesforce Ventures along with existing investor Coatue.
🧠 Big Health Raises $75 Million in Series C Funding Led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 –Big Health, a digital therapeutics company dedicated to helping millions back to good mental health, raised $75 million in a Series C funding round, led by new investor SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with participation from ArrowMark Partners and existing investors Octopus Ventures, Gilde Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente Ventures (KPV), and Morningside Ventures.
🌱 Hard Kombucha Brand Flying Embers Lands $20 Million Investment Led By Beam Suntory – Flying Embers, a line of hard kombuchas and premium hard seltzers with a better-for-you lean, has raised $20 million in a Series C funding round led by Beam Suntory, one of the world’s leading spirits portfolios. Other investors in the funding round include PowerPlant Partners (a strong supporter of plant-based tech, including Beyond Meat), Quadrant Capital, Monogram Cap and Beechwood Capital.
🥩 100 Million Dollar Natural Meat Snack Brand, Chomps, Secures Investment with Stride Consumer Partners – Chomps, the fastest-growing natural meat snack brand in absolute dollar growth in both the Natural and Conventional retail channels in the U.S., has secured a minority investment from private-equity firm Stride Consumer Partners.
🛹 Disney set to sell off X Games to Najafi investment group – Disney is set to sell off the X Games, the annual action sports event hosted, produced, and broadcast by Disney-owned sports broadcaster ESPN.
🚴♀️ KKR-led consortium agrees €1.56bn Accell acquisition – A consortium led by private equity giant KKR has agreed to acquire bicycle industry leader Accell Group in a deal worth €1.56bn.
🥽 Stoggles, a Stylish Spin on Safety Goggles, Seals $40 Million – Stoggles disclosed a growth equity raise of $40 million led by Los Angeles-based investment firm The Chernin Group, which focuses on consumer brands in media and tech. Chernin’s investments include West Hollywood-based neo-bank Dave and Pasadena-based youth sports streaming service BallerTV.
🌿 Vangst, a recruiting platform for the cannabis industry, is on a tear – The startup, which Karson Humiston, its CEO, founded when she was 23, closed a $19 million Series B funding round in January. The round was led by Level One Fund and included previous investors like Lerer Hippeau and Casa Verde Capital as well as new investors like L2 Ventures and Delta Emerald Ventures.
👚 The pitch deck that 24-year-old fitness entrepreneur Grace Beverley used to raise $5.7 million for her activewear startup – A walk through the pitch deck used to secure $5.7 million in funding, co-led by Active Partners and Venrex. Other investors included Nicola Kilner, the CEO of Deciem, the company behind The Ordinary, and Simon Mottram, the CEO of Rapha.
Some tweets
Who else is looking forward to a weekend of short-track speed skating, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, ski-jumping, snowboarding, and Six Nations rugby?
Yours in sports,
Ed
—
Edward Rhys
Founder / Skin In The Game
www.skininthegamegroup.com
A favour
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you did, please share with friends who you think will get something out of it.
And if you can spare the time, get in touch with your thoughts. Whether founder, investor, or sports fan, your input will help me to improve what I’m doing and serve the Skin In The Game family better.
Skin In The Game is a startup investment club connecting investors with visionary sports, health, and entertainment startups. We provide a regulated platform for investors and entrepreneurs to collaborate and co-invest.
SKIN IN THE GAME LIMITED is registered in England and Wales under Company Number 13200102 and with the FCA as an Appointed Representative with FRN 946089. SKIN IN THE GAME LIMITED is an Appointed Representative of Finex LLP which is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) with firm reference number 507537.