World’s most valuable sports teams – Personalised nutrition – Athlete stock market – At-home lab tests – Musculoskeletal care – Neuromodulation devices – Sports metaverse
Week 52
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Skin In The Game is an FCA regulated investment syndicate connecting angel investors with groundbreaking startups in sports & health.
We co-invest with leading funds, family offices, and corporate venture firms, leveraging their deep expertise and financial firepower to access the best deals.
Deal flow
In this week’s newsletter we have 34 deals across sports & health, from seed, via growth stage, to pre-IPO.
Standouts
🦴 Cipher Skin Announces New Investors and Product Innovations for Physical Rehabilitation – Tribe Capital, Draper Capital, and a number of large family offices followed on, along with new capital from Andreessen Horowitz. The hardware-enabled monitoring platform enables flexible, hybrid recovery for musculoskeletal care.
🩸 Rootine Raises $10M For Next-Gen Supplements – Using at-home lab tests, Rootine leverages blood biomarkers, DNA, and (soon) wearables data to recommend custom supplement subscriptions that optimize “cellular nutrition.”
🇩🇰 Denmark’s Kollektiv raises €1.5 million – Helle and Ben Powell-Frederiksen are leveraging 15 years' worth of world-class athletic performance and providing coaches, athletes, and everyone a platform to converge on.
🕶 Bruin-backed TGI Sport acquires virtual media specialist Interregional Sports Group – The deal marks TGI Sport’s first acquisition since the company secured a reported $100 million investment from Bruin Capital, which jointly owns the business alongside Quadrant Private Equity, in 2021.
✍️ Abrams, Rees Launch Sports-Focused Investment Firm – The firm is planning to invest up to $50 million in early-stage companies in the sports, media, and entertainment sectors with enterprise values of up to $2 billion.
🇺🇸 US investors eye cost controls to boost value of European club acquisitions – Sources say that the best strategy to unlock the value of established top-flight clubs is bringing in tighter cost controls.
Best of the rest
🌍 The World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams – The world’s 50 most valuable sports teams are worth a combined $222.7 billion, 30% more than a year ago, the biggest increase in five years.
🇬🇧 Sports nutrition business secures £3.5m investment – Blackburn-based Science in Sport, the premium performance nutrition suppliers to the English Football Association and the 2021 NBA Champions, has secured a £3.5m funding package from Lombard, part of the NatWest Group in collaboration with PMD Business Finance.
⚽️ Silver Lake ups stake in Manchester City owner CFG to 14.5% – The Silicon Valley-based company reportedly acquired a 4.1% share in CFG from China Media Capital (CMC), which retains an 8.2% share. Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) remains the largest shareholder with just over 75%.
🧫 InsideTracker raises $15 million to ramp up tech, science team – The app analyzes blood and DNA tests, wearables, and demographic information alongside its nutrition, longevity and chronic disease database to make customized lifestyle recommendations.
💰 LiveScore Group secures £50m investment from Ringier – The investment, which is designed to accelerate LiveScore Group’s global expansion, values the company’s gaming and media business at £500m.
🎲 Sports Betting, iGaming Tech Provider Betegy Closes Round – The venture capital firm Yolo Investments has made an investment of several million euros in Betegy, which is a supplier of automated marketing technology for the iGaming and sports betting industry.
🇬🇧 Castore valued at UK£750m after latest round – Castore has raised £50 million in a move the UK sportswear brand says values it at £750 million. The secured revolving credit facility (RCF) has an initial maturity of 3 years and involves HSBC, BNP Paribas and Silicon Valley Bank.
🇸🇦 Saudi National Development Fund to invest $80 million in gaming and e-sports – The Saudi National Development Fund (NDF) is creating a program to finance gaming and e-sports.
📈 A-Rod and Lore’s Athlete Stock Market Launches with $100M – The company, which is legally considered a sportsbook, plans to roll out in every US state where sports betting is legal.
👨💻 Next League Secures Investment Round –Next League provides product design, software and systems development and integration for clients in the sports industry to manage their fan-facing media and engagement platforms.
🌌 LootMogul Receives $200 Million – The company is building a sports metaverse platform that spans NFTs, branded virtual real estate, and blockchain gaming.
🧠 Headspace Acquires The Shine App – Founded in 2016, the Shine app serves over 45,000 paid subscribers and has reached over six million people by offering self-guided content – including daily meditations, self-care courses, and personalized support – as well as virtual workshops hosted by third-party experts and Shine’s inclusive community.
👩⚕️ Redesign Health raises $65 million to build healthcare startups – Founded in 2018 by CEO Brett Shaheen, Redesign’s team of about 300 researches, assembles, brands, and launches healthcare startups by tapping into its team of entrepreneurs, healthcare industry operators, business analysts, and investors.
🇮🇪 Irish unicorn LetsGetChecked secures €20m from Morgan Health – Founded in 2015, LetsGetChecked builds and delivers at-home testing kits including hormone tests, fertility tests, HPV tests and wellness tests for cholesterol and diabetes.
🚗 Misfits Market to acquire rival online grocery service Imperfect Foods – The deal is expected to double the size of Misfits' business to about $700 million in annual revenue, which is expected to grow to $1 billion within the next 12-18 months.
🍛 True Food Kitchen raises $100m – The award-winning restaurant brand has pioneered wellness-driven dining, and now closes a significant round of capital investment led by two new investors, HumanCo and Manna Tree, supported by existing investor Centerbridge Partners.
👩🌾 Gotham Greens Raises $310 Million in Fresh Funding – The NY-based indoor farming pioneer operates one of the largest networks of high-tech hydroponic greenhouses in North America.
💵 PowerPlant Partners Closes $330 Million Fund – The firm is known predominately for backing leading plant-based consumer food and beverage brands.
🌶 LYKON raises €10 million in Series A – The capital will drive LYKON’s mission to build the leading ecosystem for personalised nutrition by launching new tests and personalised functional foods.
👨💻 LegitFit raises €1m in seed funding round – LegitFit provides business management software to gyms, studios and independent fitness professionals, covering member management, scheduling, payments and communications, and a website builder.
👟 How Hilma raised a $3m seed round to make running shoes more inclusive for women – Hilma’s shoes are made in varying shapes and widths in order to provide the perfect fit for every runner, regardless of foot shape or ability.
⛅️ WellnessLiving Secures $66 Million – The company is a cloud-based business management software and integrated payments platform for fitness and wellness operators.
🌷 Funxtion raises EUR5.8M Series A – Funxtion is an Amsterdam-based B2B SaaS digital fitness content platform company that empowers fitness operators around the world to provide their members with personalised digital fitness experiences at scale.
🤰 Virtual Fertility Clinic Apricity Raises €17M Series B – The company advocates for a new approach to reproductive medicine combining fertility care with technology to increase the chances of conception, while offering a better patient experience.
🧠 With schools increasingly focused on mental health, PsycApps raises seed round for US expansion – Describing itself as an “evidence-based gamified mental health game for teens and young adults”, eQuoo is now aiming its platform at the 50% of teens and tweens who self-report struggling with one or more issues of mental health.
🧠 Theranica Secures $45 Million Series C – Theranica is a prescribed digital therapeutics company developing advanced neuromodulation devices for migraine and other idiopathic pain conditions.
🎾 Tennis Players Find Their Match on Break the Love – Seeking to establish an online social network for tennis players is Break the Love, which raised $2.5 million in seed funding earlier this year from investors that included the Adidas family-backed Lake Nona Fund, retired Wimbledon doubles champion Vania King, and Wim Fissette, the former tennis coach for Naomi Osaka.
💰 Inside Venturerock’s $75 Million Sports Tech Venture Investment Company – The concept is to invest, on average, $3-4 million per startup, but do so in phases as the company meets designated KPIs or other milestones.
Some tweets
P.S.
I’m down in Devon for a few days with Emily and the boys, which means no laptop, Zoom calls, or Slack notifications (at least between the hours of 6am and 7pm). But it’s not all fun and games – I’ve brought the weighted vest with me…
Yours in sports,
Ed
—
Ed Rhys
Co-Founder / Skin In The Game
www.skininthegamegroup.com
Join our syndicate
If you find this newsletter useful, consider joining our FCA regulated investment syndicate connecting angel investors with groundbreaking startups in sports & health.
We co-invest with leading funds, family offices, and corporate venture firms, leveraging their deep expertise and financial firepower to access the best deals.
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.