Athlete investors – The first esports franchise unicorn – A prayer app – Collectible card trading – Dynamic air compression – Golf footwear – Painless glucose sensors – The booming athleisure market
Week 23
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.
Get in touch if you want to find out more.
Confessions
The onslaught of deals continues.
Celebrity investors are the order of the day, with startups clamouring to get athletes entertainers, and people who are famous for being famous into their rounds. The feeling is very much mutual, with high profile figures keen to invest in the hottest startups, often embarking on sustained investment programmes, with millions of dollars (and it usually is dollars) being put to work.
Athletes are positioning themselves for life after sport. It’s almost as if angel investing is the new sports punditry… unless, like Gary Neville, you are into both.
But it’s not all deferred gratification. Athletes are leveraging their influence and wealth to build hybrid careers right here, right now. They’re not waiting for the future to happen, they’re getting in amongst it.
The risk, of course, is getting distracted. Everyone seems to assume that extracurricular interests can detract from sporting performance (and some even take this clichéd view too far). But they can also enhance it, by helping people under extreme pressure to gain perspective and diversify their risk. I’m not a professional athlete, so I don’t know, but this is a theme I’m keen to explore with clients as I believe it’s fundamental to understanding their needs and objectives.
Some athletes are going further than angel investing and launching fully fledged venture capital firms and SPACs. The model forged by Kevin Durant and LeBron James is ahead of its time and yet to land in Europe and Asia – but it will. I fully expect (almost) every athlete, investor and influencer to become startup investors in the coming years, whether that’s as angels, VCs, advisors, or brand ambassadors.
That’s a strange and exciting thought and one the investment management industry – and the talent management industry – haven’t fully thought through. With a bit of luck Skin In The Game can play a role in helping people understand the potential for growth in private investments and the role that athletes and influencers have to play in the process.
Imagine a sports agency with a private investment arm. Or a wealth management business with a thriving angel syndicate attached. The benefits are plentiful:
Deal flow
Investor acquisition
Monetisation through cross-selling of product
Brand building and reputational enhancement
Storytelling and content
ESG
Unforeseen network effects
This feels like a no-brainer for agents and wealth managers and frankly, I’m surprised this kind of tie-up isn’t mainstream by now. I’ve seen a few JVs in the US between VCs and talent management businesses, but nothing here in the UK, which is supposed to be a leader in the business of sports. And if you follow the theme of athlete empowerment through to its logical conclusion, it makes complete sense.
Deal flow
🏌️♀️ TRUE Linkswear To Accelerate Growth In Golf Footwear With $11.25m Investment From Karpreilly – KarpReily joins TRUE's existing investor group as a minority investor. Existing investors include 5-Time PGA TOUR Winner Ryan Moore, TRUE linkswear CEO, Jason Moore and other members of the TRUE management team.
🎮 FaZe Clan SPAC Deal Makes It the First Esports Franchise Unicorn – The deal, which includes a $118M PIPE investment and could net FaZe Clan as much as $291M in growth capital, values the combined businesses at roughly $1B, making the company the first esports franchise unicorn.
🃏 Collectible card trading platform Alt raises $75M as it eyes other asset categories and preps its mobile launch – The company has raised a $75M Series B from a roster of top investors and pro athletes, made big hires and is prepping to launch its mobile app, all while it starts to expand the scope of the alternative assets it covers.
🌿 Fyllo raises $40M to help dispensaries, and brands like Uber, market to cannabis users – Fyllo raised $40M in a Series C round led by Eminence Capital, a Wall Street investment firm. Other new backers include Capital Advisors and ArrowMark Partners.
🖥 Kitman Labs Raises $52M To Redefine How Sports Industry Uses Data To Drive Performance – Kitman Labs, the sports technology and analytics company setting a new industry standard for how elite sports organizations use data and operate, closed a $52M investment round led by Guggenheim Investments (on behalf of managed accounts), a global asset investment and advisory firm with more than $259B in AUM. The latest investment brings Kitman Labs' total outside funding to $82M.
🤩 Rory McIlroy, Daniel Ricciardo, Connor McDavid, Klay Thompson, Jayson Tatum and More Join Naomi Osaka, Erling Haaland and Virat Kohli as Hyperice Athlete-Investors to Fuel Global Growth – Hyperice, a global high-performance wellness brand specializing in percussion, dynamic air compression, vibration, thermal technology, mind technology, and contrast therapy, announced new investments from superstars across the sports world including professional golfer Rory McIlroy, F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, NHL player Connor McDavid, NBA player Klay Thompson and NBA player Jayson Tatum. The new investors join an elite list of global athlete-investors such as 4-time tennis Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, football superstar Erling Haaland and Indian cricketer Virat Kohli as strategic investors, and quickly follows the company’s entry to mental wellness and evolution into a holistic high-performance wellness brand.
☁️ Vagaro Achieves $1B Valuation with New Investment from FTV Capital – Vagaro, the leading cloud-based business management platform for beauty, fitness and wellness businesses, raised a new round of funding led by FTV Capital, which previously invested in the company in 2018. Exact terms of the investment are not being disclosed. In line with Vagaro’s growth, this new funding values the company at $1B.
🇧🇷 Brazil’s Future Farm rakes in $58M to sell more plant-based meat and dairy – Another big raise in the alternative protein space: Future Farm, a Brazilian-based food tech startup that touts plant-based meat substitutes with a “true” meat-like texture, has closed a $58M Series C funding round, co-led by BTG, as it gears up for rapid growth in the US and Europe.
🙏 Hallow raises – Prayer app Hallow has partnered with some amazing investors (Drive Capital, Peter Thiel, Susa Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, Uncork Capital, Narya VC, Contrary Capital, General Catalyst, Jim Perry, and Scott Malpass – the only American appointed by Pope Francis to sit on the board of the Vatican Bank) in a new $40M round of funding for Hallow. This Series B funding follows their $12M Series A earlier this year led by General Catalyst, bringing the total raised this year to $52M.
🏃♂️ Fleet Feet To Acquire JackRabbit – Fleet Feet, the largest franchisor of locally owned and operated running stores, agreed to acquire JackRabbit, the second-largest running specialty retailer in the US, from affiliates of CriticalPoint Capital. Terms were not disclosed.
🏍 MilkRun lands new capital to deliver farm-fresh groceries – The company grew 15x in 2020, and to keep that momentum going, MilkRun raised $6M in Series A funding. Spark Capital led the investment and was joined by existing investors Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Social Impact Capital and Congruent VC. The latest infusion gives the company a total of $10M, which includes money raised after attending Techstars and Y Combinator in 2020.
🎽 Johnson Fitness and Wellness Acquires Gym Source Retail Stores – Johnson Fitness and Wellness, the world's largest specialty fitness retailer and the retail division of Johnson Health Tech is acquiring all Gym Source retail locations across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic
🩹 Biolinq amasses $100M for its painless glucose sensor patch – The San Diego company’s nine-digit series B round represents a big leap over its series A, which raised just under $15M spread out over nearly 18 months between 2017 and 2019. Biolinq’s coin-sized patch incorporates a microarray of independent electrochemical biosensors designed to measure the amount of glucose found in the interstitial fluid between cells just underneath the skin instead of tapping into the bloodstream.
💰 Athleisure Could Become Half-Trillion Dollar Market – The athleisure market is anticipated to grow to $549B by 2028 – and that’s not accounting for emerging sub-trends within the space.
🎮 Unity to Buy Weta Digital’s Tech Division for $1.6B – Unity Software, a 3D game-development platform, has agreed to acquire Weta Digital’s technology division for $1.6B in cash and stock. A visual effects studio founded by “The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, Weta Digital offers dozens of tools that Unity will leverage to create characters and settings across digital industries, including video games.
⌗ StellarAlgo raises US$16.5m to develop fan data cloud platform – The Series A round was led by Carallas Holdings with other investors including Bleacher Report founder Dave Finocchio and Newbound VC. They join existing shareholders Accelerate Fund II, Bluesky Equities and Intergen Capital, and bring the total raised by the Calgary-based firm since it was founded in 2016 to $19M.
🕶 LeBron, Osaka Among Stars Backing Extended Reality Platform StatusPRO – Sportstech and gaming company StatusPro, which creates extended reality training programs, announced a number of new big-name investors, headlined by Lakers star LeBron James and his longtime business partner Maverick Carter, tennis phenom Naomi Osaka and rapper Drake. Interscope Records and Beats by Dre headphone company co-founder Jimmy Iovine and James’ investment adviser Paul Wachter were also among those named.
🩸 Signos raises $13M Series A to give you real-time weight-loss advice based on your blood glucose levels – Weight-loss startup Signos is betting that you’re curious enough about the difference between our respective metabolisms to sign up for real-time glucose monitoring and alerts to keep you in shape. The company has raised a total of $17M in funding, including a $4M seed funding led by Courtside Ventures, 1984 Ventures and Tau Ventures back in January. In the current round, Signos raised a $13M Series A led by GV.
👟 Sneaker fit startup Neatsy.ai gets $1M seed after B2B pivot – The US startup, which was founded back in March 2019 by Artem Semyanov (the former head of the machine learning team at Prism Labs), is now fully focused on selling its fit-tech to e-tailers via an SDK. Investors in the round include Cabra VC, Flyer One VC and some unnamed business angels.
📱 Talent Hack raises $17M led by Emergence to power the fitness creator economy – The Series A financing round was led by Emergence, with participation from existing investor Global Founders Capital.
🧘♀️ Fitness App Ladder Raises $6.5M Seed Round From LivWell Ventures, Danny Amendola – LivWell Ventures led the round, with participation from Keller Capital, former Bazaarvoice CEO Brett Hurt, NFL wide receiver Danny Amendola, and Athletic Brewing CEO Bill Shufelt.
💵 Zomato’s Investment Turns Curefit Into Unicorn – In a cross-selling deal with Curefit, Zomato sold its sports facility platform Fitso for $50M and infused an additional $50M for a 6.4% cumulative stake. The resultant deal values the startup at $1.56B.
🍲 Curefoods eyes $30M in equity funding round – Cloud kitchen company Curefoods, which operates ‘EatFit’, is in talks to raise $30M in an equity funding round led by Accel NSE -2.40 % and Chiratae.
🇮🇳 Thrasio-like startup Evenflow acquires Chennai-based online sports brand Xtrim – The digital-first brand by Asghar Ali and Sathish Kumar was founded in 2016, which manufactures and sells sports and fitness accessories, such as gym globes, joint wraps, etc. Evenflow expects Xtrim to grow by 5X by 2022, given the under-penetrated and largely unorganised sports and fitness market in India.
👶 Cradlewise raises $7M to save the sleep of newborns and parents alike – The seed round was led by Footwork, with participation from CRV and follow-on from existing investors SOSV and Better Capital. Other notable investors participating in the round include founder of Stitch Fix Katrina Lake, CEO of Italic Jeremy Cai, CTO of Molekule Dilip Goswami and ex-CEO of Misfit Wearables Sonny Vu.
🤑 Robert Kraft, Jerry Jones Among Investors In $60M VC Fund Focused On Sports Tech And Entertainment – The fund's investors include the Kraft Group, which owns the New England Patriots; Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys; Todd Boehly, who owns a stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Sparks; and Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. MSG 0.0%, owner of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers.
🕶 AppliedVR Raises $36M Series B To Scale Comprehensive Virtual Reality Platform For Healthcare – The round, which included investments from F-Prime Capital, JAZZ Venture Partners, Sway Ventures and SVB Ventures, set up AppliedVR for rapid growth as it prepares for its decision from the FDA on its first de novo submission.
🇫🇷 Sportihome closes €2m funding round – Montpellier-based sports tourism startup Sportihome, which wants to become the go-to platform for sporting holidays in France, has closed a €2M investment round. The round was led by alternative investment fund Accurafy 4 [which specialises in scaling up digital startups], Nathalie Simon (TV presenter and former windsurfing champion), la Banque des Territoires (part of the groupe Caisse des Dépôts), public investment bank Bpifrance, and a number of existing angel investors.
👩🎓 Philadelphia startup raises $2.5M seed round to cash in on college sports NIL deals – Florida Funders, a venture capital firm based in Tampa, led the seed round. Also joining the round were Joseph Greco, co-owner of the Philadelphia Union; Richard Motzkin, vice president and managing partner of global soccer at sports marketing agency Wasserman, which also serves as NOCAP’s director of athlete relations; attorney Bakari Sellers and College Hunks Hauling Junk CEO Omar Soliman.
🇮🇪 Dublin biotech firm Nuritas eyes global expansion with $45m funding round – The Series B round was led by Chicago-based Cleveland Avenue, with Grosvenor’s Wheatsheaf Group, the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF), Singapore-based Vertex Holdings, Nutresa Ventures/Veronorte, Cultivian Sandbox Ventures and VisVires New Protein also participating. Other early backers of Nuritas include U2’s Bono and The Edge, Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff and entrepreneur Ali Partovi.
Some tweets
Watching England put 10 past San Marino last night I couldn’t help imagine what it must be like supporting the worst international football team on the international circuit. If you think it’s hard being an England fan, put yourself in their shoes. It took them six years (from 2013–2019) to score a goal at home. And now this. San Marino’s fans deserve a lifetime achievement award. This tweet says it all…
Cheers,
Ed
—
Edward Rhys
Founder / Skin In The Game
www.skininthegamegroup.com
🙏 A favour
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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.
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