A piece of Skin In The Game – Non-invasive disease monitoring – Sports franchise Investing – The food revolution – Joe Montana, VC – F1’s US growth – Gone fishing
Week 19
Skin In The Game is a weekly newsletter dedicated to sports investing. 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 and founders to collaborate and co-invest.
Hit me up by if you want to find out more.
Confessions
This newsletter is an experiment. My thinking is that by building a community of sports investors and founders around backward-looking deal flow I can get them to collaborate on forward-looking deal flow. I can create a profitable investment club, with deal fees and long-term economic exposure to a diversified portfolio of startups, a subscription model, and advertising revenue from forward-thinking brands who want to reach my audience.
So far, it’s been a joy working on the newsletter and I’ve met some brilliant people through it. I’ve also reconnected with some old friends from school and uni who have forged impressive careers in sports. I’m in the process of raising capital to grow the Skin In The Game community and build out the business, and there’s been strong interest from former banking colleagues and sports-biz people. But I’m still keen to meet new people and explore working with them as investors and partners. Let me know if you’re interested in owning a piece of Skin In The Game and working with me to build the world’s go-to destination for investing in sports, health, and entertainment.
Aficionados of this newsletter will notice that the format of my “Confessions” is always changing. I’m messing around with different styles and have reverted to the discombobulated meanderings of a 36-year-old aspiring venture capitalist with a 2-year old who is mid-way through potty training – my suspicion being that the long thought pieces have gotten a little too long for busy founders and investors. Hopefully the bric-a-brac style makes it easier to get into the newsletter, or scan it before moving on to the next, more important thing in your inbox. If covering more ground in less time increases my chances of connecting with people’s interests, annoyances and obsessions, then I’ll take that.
I’m an advisor to a very impressive founder who is building an incredible fintech company. Our regular calls and meetings have been a huge help to me as I build my own business as a solo founder – they are challenging me to push harder and prioritise good old fashioned execution over the irresistible pull of planning.
I was a bit surprised (and disappointed) by Prince William’s criticism of the new space race. He’s usually very astute – either genuinely smart or well-advised – but I felt his take on the rise of space tourism was weirdly short-sighted and divisive. The argument that we should focus on saving the planet rather than leaving it ignores the complex and subtle way that innovation works.
I’ve already written about tech transfer from sports into health and entertainment – it’s a core driver of our investment thesis at Skin In The Game – and the same is true of space. Many of the prosaic objects that we take for granted were once revolutionary inventions, forged through the space industry: scratch-resistant lenses, ear thermometers, insoles., invisible braces, cordless tools, water filters, satellite navigation, memory foam…. you name it. The space industry is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer, which means that commercially unviable ideas that would never receive private capital get investment. The space industry also attracts sharp, unconventional minds, which means that ideas propagated in this space are often unique, inventive and disruptive. If you want to change the world, it makes sense to enlist the help of a bunch of rocket scientists! Also, surely it makes sense for us to hedge our bets and establish a Plan B in case something goes terribly wrong, or events outside our control conspire to render Earth uninhabitable (as they have before)? Framing the next chapter of our relationship with space as an either/or choice between Earth and Space creates a false dichotomy, reducing something complex and exciting into a depressing and unnecessary choice. On space, our future king and I disagree – otherwise I am very much a fan his work (and his work ethic).
I continue to swat up on psychedelics – I’ve hoovered up Michael Pollan’s stuff (which I guess it the literary equivalent of Airport Lit for hardcore psychedelics geeks) and now I’m onto the long tail of academic papers, Google searches, Substacks, tweets and other ephemera. Like all new fields, the more you learn, the less you know you know. I’m trying to embrace that feeling and push through to the other side. I would absolutely love to connect with people who share my interest in the therapeutic (and investment) potential of psychedelics. And I know there are lots of you out there. So please get in touch if you’d like to chew the fat with me over a CBD coffee.
I’ve decided to let rip with deal flow. I was holding back lots of deals because there were simply so many going through the screens and I was wary about overwhelming people. Well, you’re all big enough to look after yourselves. So henceforth, I’m letting you have it.
Deal flow
🏈 Legendary Quarterback Joe Montana Is Officially A Legendary Venture Capital Investor Thanks To GitLab’s Massive IPO – Some of his current fortune has come from endorsements with companies like Sketchers, Guinness, Papa Johns, MasterCard and AT&T. But the vast majority has come thanks to Joe's retirement career pivot to the world of venture capital investing.
🏃♀️ FitOn pumps up its fitness platform with $18M – Founded by the husband-and-wife team of former Fitbit executive Lindsay Cook and AllTrails founder Russell Cook, the app launched two years ago with a mission of what CEO Lindsay Cook called a “democratization of digital fitness”. The round was led by Delta-v Capital, with participation from existing investors Accel, Telstra Ventures, Crosscut Ventures, Maverick Ventures and Second Avenue Partners.
⚽️ Wolves target US opportunities with Peak6 investment – Fosun International, the Chinese conglomerate which owns Wolverhampton Wanderers, has ended its search for fresh investment in the English Premier League football club by bringing in US finance and technology firm Peak6 Investments as a minority stakeholder.
🏀 Lebron James Invests In At-Home Fitness Startup Tonal – Lebron James is the newest investor and brand ambassador for Tonal, an at-home fitness startup valued at $1.6 billion after a $250 million Series E round in March.
🇦🇪 STEPPI raises $1.8M in its latest funding round – The UAE-based health and corporate wellness platform STEPPI has successfully raised $1.8M in its latest funding round, powered by a new partnership with boutique health and fitness experts, Embody Fitness, based in London and Dubai. The round welcomes Embody Fitness founders, James Miller and Sharare Hau to the STEPPI management team as CEO and CCO respectively, and opens new possibilities for corporate wellness in the UAE.
🩹 GraphWear Raises $20.5 Million Led by Mayfield to Develop the First No-Needle, No-Blood Approach to Disease Monitoring – GraphWear’s technology offers the first genuinely non-invasive method to map patient health without needles, blood or urine.The round, led by Mayfield with participation from MissionBio Capital, Builders VC and VSC Ventures, will accelerate the development and scale of the platform for targets across diabetes, heart disease and cancer detection.
💰 Arctos Sports Franchise Fund Tops $3B – Arctos Sports Partners has already established itself as a major name in sports franchise investing, and now it has added another $2.1 billion to its flagship fund.
🎲 DraftKings acquires stake in Vivid Seats SPAC – DraftKings is buying into Horizon Acquisition Corp, the SPAC on the verge of taking the Vivid Seats ticketing platform public. The US sports betting giant is purchasing part of the stake owned by Eldridge Industries, a firm founded by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Todd Boehly.
⛵️ Ben Ainslie becomes majority owner of British SailGP team – Ben Ainslie, the Olympic gold medal and America’s Cup winner, has become the majority owner of the Great Britain SailGP team. With the global franchise sailing series now deep into its second season, the British team becomes the first to be taken under third-party ownership
🪑 SeatGeek to go public via $1.35 bln deal with Billy Beane-backed SPAC – SeatGeek agreed to go public in a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, backed by baseball executive Billy Beane of “Moneyball” fame, giving the online ticketing firm an enterprise value of $1.35 billion.
👩💻 Oshi Health Secures $23 Million Series A to Scale Transformational Virtual Specialty Care – Flare Capital Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Frist Cressey Ventures, CVS Health Ventures and notable angel investors back Oshi Health’s novel, integrated care model for gastrointestinal health.
🧠 MindLabs gets $3.5M seed to make mental wellness engaging – The seed round was led by PROFounders Capital, with participation from Slack Fund; Sky executive chairman and former chief executive officer Jeremy Darroch; and returning investors Passion Capital and Seedcamp.
🍳 Better Brand announces $2.5m funding round – Food tech start-up Better Brand has announced the closure of a $2.5 million funding round, led by venture capital firm Seven Seven Six. The round – which brings the company’s total funding this year to over $4 million – was joined by Soma Capital, Verso Capital, Cruise founder Kyle Vogt and actor Patrick Schwarzenegger.
🕺 Dance Church lands $4.7M to fuel online fitness platform – Dance Church, the Seattle-based creators of a high-energy, dance-focused movement class that also includes an online subscription platform, has raised $4.7 million in seed funding. Los Angeles-based MaC Ventures, co-founded by the former mayor of Washington DC, led the round, with participation from PSL Ventures, Crush Ventures, Kid Venture Capital, Spike Ventures, and Graham & Walker – a new $10 million VC fund in Seattle that was formerly Female Founders Alliance. MaC also previously invested in Seattle-area startups Edge Delta, Stoke Space Technologies, and Starfish Space.
👩⚕️ Mindful Care Closes $2.7M Series A Round to Expand Mental Health Urgent – The round was led by Sopris Capital with participation by the Caruso Foundation, the University of Chicago, Venkon Group, and others. The funds will be used to help Mindful Care open new urgent mental healthcare locations and expand its online solutions. Mindful Care previously closed a $1.5 million friends and family round in 2020.
🍽 Backing the food revolution, with our brand new €100m fund – Food Labs has just closed its new Food Fund: a €100m Early-Stage fund to help European innovators achieve a paradigm shift in the world of food production, health and sustainability.
🇮🇳 Zerodha CEO, Chiratae back fitness-tech startup by IIT Delhi alumni – AroLeap Fitness Pvt Ltd, a fitness-focused startup, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Chiratae, Sauce.vc, and Whiteboard Capital. The round also saw participation from Nithin Kamath, co-founder and chief executive officer of Zerodha through his investment arm Rainmatter Capital.
🎮 Patron raises $90M to invest in gaming seed rounds – Patron is unveiling itself as a new venture capital fund with $90 million to invest in games and game technology. The fund was started by game industry veterans Jason Yeh and Brian Cho. It’s a specialised early-stage venture firm that will invest across what the founders call the “spectrum of play.” That includes all sorts of games and related gamified sectors, such as fitness, education, and personal finance.
📱 Mindbody acquires ClassPass in all-stock deal and secures $500 million investment – ClassPass, the subscription-based fitness marketplace most recently valued at $1 billion, has been acquired by Mindbody.
👩⚖️ Femtech firms are at last enjoying an investment boom – A wave of “femtech” firms are coming up with ways for women to overcome health problems. The market could more than double from $22.5bn last year to more than $65bn by 2027.
🌳 SeventySix Capital Announces Three New Investments – SeventySix Capital announced three new investments into disruptive sports tech and sports betting companies: Quintar, NFT PRO, and Lucra Sports.
🇯🇵 SoftBank invests $400 million in activewear maker Vuori – SoftBank’s venture capital fund has invested $400 million in Vuori, the California-based maker of leggings and sports bras said on Wednesday, valuing it at $4 billion.
🃏 Collectibles App Rally Raises $15 Million More as Stars Pile In – Collectibles trading app Rally has raised another $15 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round, as the platform looks to cement itself as the go-to destination to invest in passion assets.
🏴 Swansea Sports-tech Hub Selected for Global Online Accelerator – Based in Swansea, Wales, the new sports-tech platform Univarsity was accepted into Newchip’s renowned global accelerator program. Designed to provide all the skills and tools founders need to rapidly fund, build and scale their companies, past accelerator cohorts averaged more than 17.5 times the average funding amount. The equity-free, fully digital accelerator has helped over 1,000 founders from 35 countries raise over $300 million in funding.
🏎 F1’s US Growth spurs racing fantasy league into gaming startup – Benefiting from Formula One’s ascent in the US, GridRival recently raised a $3 million seed round to build a gaming destination exclusively for motorsports fans. GridRival hopes to attract fans of NASCAR, IndyCar and MotoGP, but its focus on F1 has given the startup a new angle into the American market. The road. Was led by led by prominent Chicago-based sports-tech fund, KB Partners. Also participating are Sharp Alpha Advisors, ESPT Ventures, and other seasoned sports betting investors and executives including Lloyd Danzig, and Benjie Cherniak.
🎸 Bryan Adams backs non-dairy beverage startup – The Vancouver rock star is a long-time vegan, and is literally putting his money where his mouth is by backing a Vancouver startup that makes plant-based alternatives to dairy products.
👟 Poshmark acquires sneaker verification startup Suede One – In its first acquisition, Poshmark has acquired Suede One, a virtual sneaker authentication platform, the company announced on Wednesday. The Suede One staff will become part of Poshmark’s team. The Suede One purchase is part of Poshmark’s effort to catalyze growth in popular secondhand goods categories and strengthen the user experience for both buyers and sellers.
👄 A startup making a smart mouthguard for athletes just got a funding boost – The $250K Small Business Innovation Research funding for WrightGuard Innovation will help the dentist-founded startup as it moves through prototyping and testing.
Some tweets
They call fishing the sport of kings – or is that horse racing?! I had my first fly fishing lesson this week; a somewhat indulgent birthday present to myself. Spending the best part of 8 hours waist deep in water left me cold, sore, and strangely elated. As an excuse to get away from the computer screen and out into the thick of nature, it cannot be beaten. I just wish it was April already!
Cheers,
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 entrepreneur, investor, exec, or sports fan, your input will help me to improve what I’m doing and serve the Skin In The Game family better.
You received this email because you signed up via our website.
Skin In The Game is a startup investment club connecting investors with visionary sports startups. We provide a regulated platform for fans, athletes, entrepreneurs and brands to collaborate and co-invest. By investing in SportsTech we can unleash the full potential of sports, enriching the lives of people everywhere.
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.