Investing in CrossFit – LeBron James buys into Pickleball – Super sports bars – Geolocation tech – Metabolic health – Soccer-Centric Social Networks – Digital Anxiety Clinics – Music as medicine
Week 54
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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 39 deals across sports & health, from seed, via growth stage, to pre-IPO.
Standouts
🎾 LeBron James buys Major League Pickleball team – The new ownership group consists of James and business partner Maverick Carter’s family office LRMR Ventures, investment firm SC Holdings, as well as NBA champions Draymond Green and Kevin Love.
🗺 Xpoint Raises Multi-Million Funding Round – Geolocation tech firm Xpoint has raised an undisclosed multi-million funding round to strengthen its place in the sports betting, iGaming and daily fantasy sport industries in the US and worldwide. The company’s newest investors are Acies Investments, The Raine Group and SuRo Capital Sports, who were also joined in the round by Xpoint’s original investors Better Capital and Courtside Ventures.
🚸 Gymfinity Kids clubs chain seeks to triple venues after £5m cash boost – Gymnastic clubs and nurseries business Gymfinity Kids has secured a £5m cash injection.
⚖️ Limbo Raises $6 Million For Its Digital Weight Loss Tools – The round was led by Hoxton Ventures with several angel investors joining the investment alongside basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal, including former Irish rugby player Jamie Heaslip, Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave as well as Seedcamp.
🔥 Cake Raises $8M in Series A Funding To Reinvent The Sex Aisle – The round was led by investment partner Silas Capital. It was completed with existing investors including Lerer Hippeau, Bullish, Selva Ventures, and Finn Capital Partners.
🏟 Fabric raises $4m to boost fan interaction platform – Geospatial web platform Fabric raised $4 million, including investment from Sapir Venture Partners.
🇩🇰 This Danish startup has a planning app for neurodivergent people – Tiimo has just raised a €3m seed round, and wants to be “Headspace for planning”.
🇺🇸 Metre raises – The Oakland-based metabolic health platform raised $1 million in pre-seed funding led by Michael Adams, John Broderick, and other angels. Metre is a noninvasive breath acetone measurement device delivering metabolic health insights with the accuracy and precision of a blood BHB ketone test at a fraction of the cost.
👩🎓 Scout Raises $2.6 Million to Turn Student Athletes Into Investors – A number of athletes are investing in Scout. Chingona Ventures led the round, joined by OneTeam Partners, Chris Paul, Vernon Davis and Jimmer Fredette, alongside other venture groups (BDMI, OnDeck, Reach Capital, Gaingels, Hustle Fund, Alive VC and Broadhaven Ventures) and individuals (Tim Fong, Jay Kapoor and Kyle Hines).
🏋️♂️ Multi-Million Dollar Funding Rounds Galore for CrossFit in 2022 – Over the past several months, there has been a growing trend in the CrossFit industry of companies securing large, sometimes multi-million dollar funding rounds to fuel growth.
Best of the rest
📈 Sports Stock Market App PredictionStrike Raises $3 Million Seed Round Led by MaC Venture Capital – PredictionStrike lets users buy and sell shares of athletes in leagues such as the NFL, NBA and UFC, with players in the WNBA, soccer, tennis and golf expected to soon be added.
⚽️ OneFootball Acquires Gloria, a Soccer-Centric Social Network – Germany-based soccer media giant OneFootball has acquired Gloria, a soccer-centric social network whose investors include Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Seattle Sounders co-owner Peter Tomozawa.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group launches $38bn investment strategy – Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group, owned by the country's sovereign wealth fund the Public Investment Fund, has unveiled its new investment strategy as the kingdom seeks to become one of the world's major gaming hubs.
⛓ Liverpool FC’s Trent Alexander-Arnold Invests in WWVentures’ $15M Web3 Fund – WWVentures has raised $15 million in a funding round backed by Liverpool FC’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, 76ers Tobias Harris, and MrBeast, among others.
👂 Mental healthcare startup Lissun raises around $1 Million in pre-seed round – The round, led by IvyCap Ventures, witnessed participation from syndicates like We Founder Circle and Supermorpheous, along with marquee angel investors.
🧠 Mental health startup Grow Therapy scores $75M in Series B funding – The deal was led by TCV and Transformation Capital, and supported by existing investors SignalFire and SVB.
🇺🇸 Health tech startup with Houston HQ raises $14M series A – Optellum, which has created a breakthrough AI platform to diagnose and treat early-stage lung cancer, has raised $14m in a series A funding round. The round was led by UK-based Mercia, with additional investors California-based Intuitive Ventures and New York-based Black Opal Ventures.
🇩🇪 Hamburg-based mental health startup Sympatient receives €7.5 million to grow its Digital Anxiety Clinic – In addition to the main investor Verve Ventures and existing investors, business angels and former healthcare executives have participated in the financing round.
🧠 Alzheimer's-focused startup Rippl raises $32M following hopeful study – The investigational treatment from Biogen and Eisai, called lecanemab, significantly slowed participants' rate of cognitive decline in a clinical trial.
👩⚕️ Embody Closes $10.4M Series C Funding Round – Founded in 2014, Embody is a soft tissue healing company creating products for the sports medicine market.
🧫 Gusto Global raises $1.85M – The Triangle biotech startup Gusto Global, which focuses on the microbiome and has developed a breakthrough therapy for treating Crohn’s disease, has raised nearly $2 million in new funding.
💼 Yonder raises €2.6 million to reinvent health and pension benefits for global businesses and their employees – The round was led by Northzone and Frontline Ventures.
🍻 New super sports bar concept completes fundraising and construction of 8 new Super Sports Bars in ultra-high traffic locations – Tom's Watch Bar closed a $30M raise and partnership with Sagard Credit Partners for a structure that provides a unique platform for growth.
💰 TGI Sport concludes trio of deals with Sportseen acquisition – TGI Sport, the Bruin Capital and Quadrant Private Equity-backed media and marketing agency, has concluded a trio of acquisitions in the virtual, digital and LED advertising marketplace by agreeing a deal to buy London-based sports advertising sales agency Sportseen.
🇪🇬 Egyptian Sport Tech Startup InGame Sports secures $1M in Pre-seed Round – InGame Sports, an Egyptian gaming and sports technology startup, has secured over $1m in funding, in-kind resources, and grants in a pre-seed round spearheaded by Opener. Several well-known international sports brands, like Sports Radar, and other Egyptian and foreign angel investors participated in the round.
👩⚖️ Athletes Unlimited raises $30m in funding round including Kevin Durant – The network of professional women’s sports leagues, has raised $30 million in a new funding round that included investment from Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s 35 Ventures.
🧖♀️ GlossGenius gets $25m boost to expand, add more tools – GlossGenius supports owners of salons, spas and studios with their tech infrastructure. The Series B round was co-led by Imaginary Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners.
📺 Wellable Acquires Fitness Streaming Platform Sweat Factor – Founded in 2017, Sweat Factor provides a library of over 600 on-demand, at-home workouts through internationally recognized trainers like Mike Donavanik, Anja Garcia, Gideon Akande, Sarah Kusch, Betina Gozo, Ashley Joi, Kenta Seki, and more.
🥪 Chubby Snacks Amasses $3.25 Million To Launch Superfood Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich – Investors include MVMT’s cofounder Jake Kassan; founder of The Angel Group Adam Spriggs; Patrick Schwarzenegger, cofounder of brain health-focused nutrition company MOSH; Jeff Weisberg, CEO of J.W. Sales & Marketing; as well as D’Amelio family’s 444 Capital; and Villam Ventures, the family office of RXBar’s cofounder Jared Smith.
🚌 Investment in Cartwheel Care – General Catalyst has invested in Cartwheel Care, a platform helping schools return to balance with rapid access to affordable, evidence-based care for students and families.
⚽️ DC United valuation hits $800m in minority stake sale – The figure includes DC United’s estimated $150 million debt and is believed to be the highest ever valuation for an MLS team selling a minority stake.
💰 Silver Lake ups stake in Manchester City owner – The Silicon Valley-based firm acquired a 4.1% share in City Football Group from China Media Capital, taking its total holding to 14.5%.
🍄 Innomy (alternative proteins based on mushrooms) raises €1.3 million in funding – The round was led by Corp. Cervino, Rockstart, Zubi Capital, Eatable Adventures and CNTA.
💵 New leAD Sports & Health, Tavistock Group fund comes as sport tech market poised for double-digit growth – Sports and health technology investor leAD Sports & Health Tech Partners and private investment organisation Tavistock Group have come together to launch the $30 million Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Fund for early-stage startups in fan engagement, connected athletes, health, and well-being.
⚽️ DAZN Grows European Soccer Presence with Eleven Acquisition – The sports streaming service is buying streaming and media company Eleven, which will add the top soccer leagues in Belgium and Portugal to its offerings. The move is expected to add $300 million in annual revenue to DAZN’s balance sheet.
🎧 ‘Music as medicine’ startup secures £1.2m investment – A medical technology startup that uses music to help patients combat pain, anxiety and stress is to scale up following a £200k seed investment from Finance Yorkshire.
💰 Digsbury Ventures Launches Venture Capital Fund Targeted at the Outdoor Industry – Digsbury’s first investment is with Toronto-based carbon fiber bike frame manufacturer, Bridge Bike Works.
Some tweets
P.S.
Good to have Premier League football back after a painfully long break. Having Leeds United back on the TV means I have a valid reason to feel frustrated and incredulous on a regular basis…. much to my wife’s dismay!
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.
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