Players as owners – Street soccer – Restorative sleep technology – Music-as-therapy – Smart basketball hoops – Non-alcoholic aperitifs – Neurotechnology – Sports card investment fund
Week 51
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Members get access to curated investment opportunities, insights on investing in sports & health from our decentralised network of industry experts, and access to private events.
Squad updates
This week we’re stoked to announce a new addition to our advisory squad.
Ben Mercer has joined Skin In The Game’s advisory group.
Ben is a former professional athlete and author of Fringes: Life on the Edge of Professional Rugby. He now advises entrepreneurs and sports companies on growing powerful brands through content and storytelling, and has worked on projects at the highest levels of professional sport with athletes, clubs, rights holders, and investors. He also has an INCREDIBLE Roger Moore impression in his locker…
“Merce” is a lifelong friend who’s been involved in Skin In The Game from day one, helping to position the company as a fresh voice in the world of startup investing. As an ex-professional rugby player, author, storytelling guru, and TikTok influencer, Ben is truly multi-talented – Scott and I are looking forward to piggybacking off his success!
Ben is currently helping us bring a podcast to market, which he has kindly agreed to co-host. So you will be hearing and seeing more of him in the months ahead.
Deal Flow
In this week’s newsletter we have 46 deals across sports & health investing, from seed, via growth stage, to pre-IPO.
Standouts
🎾 Novak Djokovic’s PTPA nets US$26m investment and launches commercial arm – Novak Djokovic’s breakaway Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) has raised US$26 million in a funding round co-led by Bill Ackman.
⚽️ Street soccer startup raises – Street FC recently closed a $2M seed round led by Will Ventures with participation from Elysian Park Ventures and a crew of angel investors (Bijan Sabet, Werner Vogels, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Nihal Mehta, Craig Shapiro to name a few).
🤖 Uplift raises $5.5M – The company's AI-powered technology provides analytics to improve performance and minimize injuries. This seed round featured new investment from Steph Curry and wife Callie Rivers Curry, former NFL player David DeCastro, several Olympic gold medalists, Atma Capital, Ethos Fund, Black Lab Sports, and angel investors including the LAUNCH Fund and The Syndicate, led by Jason Calacanis.
🧓 This Yale alum wants to build a telemedicine platform expressly for Alzheimer's disease – The team has raised $6 million in seed funding for a HIPAA-compliant app that can help identify Alzheimer's disease – even years before symptoms appear – after just 10 minutes of gameplay on a cellphone.
🎧 LUCID raises – LUCID is driving innovation at the crossroads of mental health, machine learning, and music, and has secured $3 million in seed funding, led by Amplify Capital, with participation from Relentless Venture Fund, MEDTEQ+, Ontario Centre of Innovation, Reverb Venture Partners, and Leva Capital.
🚴♀️ Body Rocket crowdfunds – The UK startup is revolutionising athlete performance by unleashing the power of real-time aerodynamic analysis.
🧫 Salvo Health Secures $10.5 Million in Seed Funding To Scale Virtual Health Clinic for Chronic Conditions – Salvo Health is launching with gastro conditions first, and in the future will add other “all-virtual” clinics for chronic conditions that lend themselves to telehealth.
Alt Raising Another $17 Million for Sports Card Investment Fund – Sports collectibles platform Alt seeks an infusion of $16.9 million in new funds to expand its sports card investment fund. Alt also runs a collectibles exchange and storage business, backed by early venture capital funding from a number of investors, including Alexis Ohanian, Kevin Durant and Darren Rovell.
Best of the rest
⚽️ NWSL Valuations Soar on Angel City’s $100 Million Wings – As recently as two years ago, teams paid somewhere between $2 million and $5 million to enter the women’s soccer league. This Feb, the Washington Spirit were valued at $35 million; shortly afterward, Gotham FC raised money at a $40 million valuation.
🥊 ONE Championship can “dominate” US MMA market alongside UFC, says CEO – ONE is already backed by the likes of Sequoia Capital and Singapore’s SWF. In December, New York-based Guggenheim Investments and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) led the promoter’s most $150 million equity financing, which gave the business a valuation of more than $1 billion.
⚽️ Players as part owners: Is Cesc Fabregas’ deal with Como the future of football? – As athletes transition to life after professional sport it is natural to consider what comes next. Such considerations were highlighted recently by Cesc Fabregas’ recent deal with FC Como.
⛹️♂️ NBA Top Shot Investor Raises $110M – Software and venture firm Animoca Brands has raised $110 million, valuing the MotoGP partner and NBA Top Shot investor at more than $5 billion.
☘️ TRIP raises $12m – UK CBD brand TRIP closed a $12 million investment supported by prominent entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors, including Maria Raga, the former CEO of Depop, and Christian Angermayer, founder of Apeiron Investment Group.
🧠 Muse Announces $9.5M Series C Funding Round To Expand Brain Health and Wellness Offerings – The consumer neurotechnology company is launching an integrated wellness membership model and further research and validation of an industry-first feature tracking longitudinal changes in the brain.
🍄 Freedom Biosciences Emerges from Stealth with $10.5 Million Seed to Develop Next-Generation Ketamine and Psychedelic-based Mental Health Treatments – Freedom Biosciences was co-founded by Dr. John Krystal, Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University, and Dina Burkitbayeva, co-founder of PsyMed Ventures and one of the first investors in the psychedelic therapeutics space.
🦵 Former Seahawk Doug Baldwin Raises $1M for Ventrk – TheraCentric, Ventrk's flagship software, provides an innovative solution for physical therapists to deliver home exercise programs to their patients.
🧠 Alma Raises $130M in Series D – Alma, a membership-based network that helps independent mental health care providers accept insurance and build thriving private practices, has closed $130 million in Series D funding led by Thoma Bravo, a software investment firm.
🇺🇸 Seattle mental health startup Alongside raises $5.5M – Alongside is developing an app that interacts with students through a chatbot and guides them to resources like videos of other students experiencing similar issues.
🍬 Kuli Kuli raises $1.3 million to support gummies launch – Varieties include green apple, moringa and super greens.
🧠 Psych Hub Expands – Psych Hub was founded to be the single resource for practitioners and consumers to become educated about and navigate all aspects of mental health.
🏋️♂️ PushPress Secures $11 Million in Series A – Founded in 2013, PushPress is on a mission to make gym management the easiest part of running a fitness business through innovative integrations.
🏃♂️ Perform Emerges from Stealth with $1.2 Million in Funding – Alongside the funding, the company announced that Meb Keflezighi, 2004 Olympic silver medalist, and Merhawi Keflezighi, who manages world class endurance and track and field athletes as CEO of HAWI Management, have joined the company's board.
🎖 BRAVO SIERRA Closes $17M Series B Round Ahead of Retail Expansion – BRAVO SIERRA, America’s Personal Care Company, built with and for the US Military to meet the needs of all people, closed a $17M Series B led by The Merchant Club, with a retail launch into all Walmart stores nationwide.
🙍♀️ Cycle-focused femtech startup, 28, grabs backing from Thiel Capital – 28 has a fitness and wellness pitch that aims to connect women to the hormonal phases of their menstrual cycle for physical and emotional gain.
🍖 Eat Just bags $25M – Eat Just (an alternative protein company) has secured $25 million and a strategic partnership from C2 Capital Partners, a PE firm with Alibaba as its anchor investor.
👩💻 Motivo nets $14M to address mental health's supply problem – Motivo's online marketplace matches aspiring mental health therapists with state-focused virtual supervisors.
🤖 Urban Health secures $3.4m funding round – The Urban Health app smart wellness assistant tracks sleep, steps and mindful minutes while using psychology, personal text-based health coaching and premium recorded audio sessions, to create personalized wellness plans.
🗞 Selena Gomez’s Mental Health Startup Gets $100 Million Valuation – The world’s mental fitness ecosystem, which launched in April 2022 with a three-times weekly newsletter and touts a community of nearly 500K with over 270K active newsletter subscribers and over 220K followers across social media platforms, has secured $5 million in Series A funding.
🥑 Happy Viking, the Plant-Based Superfood Nutrition Company Created by Venus Williams, Closes Athlete Investment Round – Financing was led by Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Kevin Durant & Rich Kleiman's 35V, Peloton Vice President of Fitness Programming and global wellness expert Robin Arzón, professional golfer Michelle Wie West, soccer champion and Medal of Freedom recipient Megan Rapinoe, tennis star Reilly Opelka, and basketball phenoms Isaiah Hartenstein and Collin Sexton.
🍶 Seth Goldman’s Eat the Change raises $14.5M – The Honest Tea founder has reentered the bottled tea business as Coca-Cola phases out the brand.
🥗 Nothing negative about Positive Food’s meal expansion plan after $7M investment – Positive Food Co, providing freshly packaged salads, heat-and-eat prepared meals and vegan overnight oats, raised $7 million in funding as it goes after the $34 billion fresh prepared foods market.
📈 Blitzer, Wie West and EP Golf Close $5.5M Round for Sports AI Startup – Sportsbox AI, a company that uses motion-capture technology to improve athletic performance, has closed a $5.5 million seed round from a group that includes golf pro Michelle Wie West and David Blitzer, co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils.
🏀 Paradigm leads funding round for startup Huupe – Sports & entertainment agency Paradigm Sports led the closing of an initial seed funding round for upstart tech platform Huupe, a smart basketball hoop that allows for performance tracking and online competition.
💪 PureGym founder backs start-up personal training app as exercise goes digital – Peter Roberts has backed Another Round, which aims to make the kind of bespoke personal fitness plans associated with gym workouts more accessible and available anywhere.
🚴♀️ Link My Ride app, co-founded by pro cyclist Tom Pidcock, backed by Dutch Sport Tech Fund – The community focused app facilitates cycling socially by allowing riders, clubs and brands to connect with each other simply and safely via an easy-to-use smartphone app and desktop platform.
🍻 Non-Alcoholic Retailer Boisson Closes $12M Seed Round – The round was co-led by Connect Ventures, the investment partnership between entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and Blue Scorpion Investments, an active leading consumer venture fund.
💦 Wet Hydration raises $1.3 million in funding – The brand, which launched in 2020, markets zero-calorie, zero-sugar beverages enhanced with electrolytes, vitamins and antioxidants.
⛓ Health and Fitness App Sweat Economy Raises $13M in Private Token Sale to Move to Web3 – Move-to-earn app Sweat Economy raised $13 million in a private token sale. The funding will be used to accelerate the app’s move into the Web3 space – with native token SWEAT, users can begin earning crypto for their daily activity.
📱 Breakthrough VR Basketball App Gym Class Closes $8 Million in Seed Round Led by Andreessen Horowitz – Gym Class, the most popular VR basketball app on Meta Quest App Lab, with nearly one million downloads, has raised $8 million in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Y Combinator.
😴 Bryte Announces Strategic Funding – Bryte, the leader in restorative sleep technology, closed a $20 million strategic investment round led by Tempur Sealy International, a company synonymous with innovation in the mattress industry.
🧃 De Soi Secures $4M In Seed Funding – De Soi, a line of premium non-alcoholic aperitifs founded by Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan, announces $4M in seed funding led by Willow Growth, with participation from leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
🏀 Overtime Raises $100 Million Series D, Eyes More Sports Properties – What started in 2016 as an app to capture basketball highlights as well as social channels on platforms like Instagram and YouTube today includes Overtime’s own pro basketball league for teenage talents (Overtime Elite), hosted in a 100,000-square foot Atlanta facility, and a seven-on-seven football competition co-owned by Cam Newton (OT7). More leagues are likely on the way.
🎲 Jake Paul’s Betr raises US$50m to ‘TikTok-ify’ betting for Gen Z sports fans – Social media personality Jake Paul and Simplebet co-founder Joey Levy have raised US$50 million to advance their vision for the ‘TikTok-ification’ of sports betting with the launch of micro-wagering platform Betr.
🎰 Penn to take full ownership of Barstool Sports – Penn acquired 36% of Barstool in 2020 and will reportedly pay $387 million to acquire the current outstanding shares.
🎮 Oddin.gg raises $4.5m in Series A financing round – Esports betting odds provider Oddin.gg has raised $4.5m (£3.7m) through its Series A funding round. The funding round, led by current investors as well as Genting Ventures and Velo Partners, will be used to scale the company further and develop ‘new verticals’.
Some Tweets
P.S.
A quiet(ish) week on the sporting front, so I’ll be working, settling into my new office / lair, swimming, trying to eat more protein, and packing up the car before heading off on holiday with the family.
Yours in sports,
Ed
—
Ed Rhys
Co-Founder / Skin In The Game
www.skininthegamegroup.com
Join our Investment Syndicate
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Members get access to curated investment opportunities, insights on investing in sports & health from our decentralised network of industry experts, and access to private events.
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