Insights about athlete-investors #19
Big exit for Russel Westbrook and The Chainsmokers in Poppi’s $2Bn sale to Pepsico
Hi, it’s Arthur from Athletico Ventures. We help elite athletes invest in startups alongside top tier investors. Here is your regular shot of insights about athlete investors…
Deals that caught our attention
Big exit for Russel Westbrook, The Chainsmokers and 24KGoldn in Poppi’s $2Bn sale to Pepsico (Forbes)
Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady acquires a 50% stake in sports card and memorabilia retailer CardVault (Cllct)
Russell Westbrook invests in pharmaceutical startup Wheeler Bio (Sport Business Journal)
Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions sells a 10% stake to a new investment platform at a $750m valuation (CNBC)
Harry Kane backs UK premium ticketing start-up Seat Unique (Financial Times)
Backed by Nadal, spanish startup Playtomic valued at $273m in new funding round (Reuters)
Companies & funds founded by athletes & celebrities
NBA star Tristan Thompson launches basketball analytics tool (The Street)
Coco Gauff launches own management firm with WME (Sports Pro)
Bridgerton actress Charithra Chandran backs Arāya Ventures (Tech Funding News)
100 sports stars to back Australian VC firm Athletic Ventures, co-founded by an AFL player and a top basketballer (Financial Review)
Athletes & celebrities investing in sports teams & leagues
Unrivaled 3-on-3 women's basketball league announces Steph Curry as investor (Si)
Serena Williams set to be an owner of new WNBA team the Toronto Tempo (NBC News)
Harry Kane becomes investor In Tiger Woods’ TGL Team (Golf Monthly)
…. and more at the bottom of this email….
Cool content worth watching, reading or listening
Podcast recommendation: The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett
The podcast delves into the world of entrepreneurship, leadership, and personal growth through candid conversations with some of the most influential figures in business. Join Steven Bartlett as he uncovers the untold stories of founders, executives, and thought leaders, offering a raw and unfiltered look at the highs and lows of success. Two of our favourites with inspiring leaders sharing their journeys:
Other pieces of content we liked over the past weeks
Investing-related
VC fund performance 2024 (Carta)
How to be a top 1% angel - A guide to winning as an individual investor (Mario Gabriele)
How the top US angel investor operates | Ed Lando, Founder of Pareto Holdings (Youtube)
The ChatGPT prompts that can be $1B+ companies (Rex Woodbury)
The Hair-on-Fire-Problem created by ChatGPT: How do marketers reach an audience that is leaving Google behind? (Chemistry)
Why the next wave of AI will shift the race towards distribution and growth (Andrew Chen)
Celebrity & sports-related
The information’s database of the tech moguls who own sports teams (The Information)
American money owns European football, and you should get used to it (Gameplayer)
Wrexham AFC’s value increased by 4,900% since Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney’s takeover (Bloomberg business)
Monarch Collective raises $100M for women’s sports investments (Sportico)
What are sports investors bullish and bearish on in 2025? (Forbes)
Mr.Beast - the $5Bn creator HoldCo (Will Ventures)
Strava to acquire Runna, a leading running training app (The Verge)
Portfolio news
Jump
Nicolas Fayon was invited on the Itinéraire podcast to discuss on how he became an entrepreneur (Itinéraire)
Gladia
Gladia launched Solaria, its new speech AI model designed for global expansion (Gladia)
Gladia was featured FinTechTime’s article: What are the perks of a fintech using AI from a customer standpoint? (The Fintech Times)
Jean-Louis Quéguiner was interviewed by Temy to discuss profound insights into the realistic capabilities and limitations of AI (Unite.ai)
Sorare
Nicolas Julia was invited by Stebbings brothers’ Business of Sports podcast (Apple Podcast)
Scoreplay
Scoreplay announced a new strategic partnership with LFP - French soccer leagues Ligue 1 & Ligue 2 (Sportcal)
Scoreplay is hiring a Lead Dev Ops Engineer and Senior Solutions Architect (Bamboo)
Scoreplay’s Quarterly playback (LinkedIn)
Syntetica
Syntetica is looking for a VP R&D (LinkedIn)
Cowboy
Cowboy transitioned its assembly in France to strengthen quality control, reduce delivery times (Tech.eu)
MokaCare
MokaCare’s survey on mental health at work made the front page of Le Parisien's Economy supplement (Le Parisien)
Ōura
Ōura announced the launch of its AI-powered health coach, providing members with personalized and contextual guidance about their health and biometrics (Business wire)
Ōura welcomed its first Chief Medical Officer (LinkedIn)
Ōura annouced a new collaboration with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to study sleep quality in space (LinkedIn)
Swap Food (Umiami)
SWAP is now available in supermarkets like Leclerc, Monoprix, Intermarché and Carrefour among others, thanks to a partnership with Heura Foods (Vegcomonist)
SWAP partnered with Seth Commercial Corporation to bring SWAP Chicken to their Chaska restaurant locations across Ontario and Canada (LinkedIn)
Djamo
Djamo just announced a $17m series B with 1M users across Francophone Africa and led by Janngo Capital (TechCrunch)
Bonus links
Investing-related
How to build a tier 1 fund (Mario Gabriele)
How I spent 17,784 hours in 5 years as a startup founder (First Round)
What it really takes to make AI agents work (NFX)
Consumer Trends: Food & Wellness Special 2025 (Coefficient Cap)
State of consumer internet (SVB)
Celebrity & sports-related
Why the smartest players are building their own brands and leaving millions on the table if they don’t (Jordan Wise)
Energy drinks company Red Bull launches investment unit (Global Venturing)
Pierre Gasly: believing in Alpine (F1: Beyond The Grid)
Baller league will fail: and you heard it here first (Jason Wise)
Private Equity Firm Velocity Capital is investing more than $100m in a European soccer agency (Forbes)
United Soccer League takes bold step forward with launch of division one professional men’s league (USL Soccer)
Talking French women's club football with Pedro Iriondo (The Women’s Football Finance Podcast)
Off the court: how Kyle Kuzma is growing his brand and portfolio (Entrepreneur)
Grammy-award winning artist DJ Khaled named SailGP’s Chief Hype Officer (SailGP)
Ryan Smith of Utah Jazz, Utah Hockey Club launches new sports-tech investment fund (The Athletic)
Garcia's podcast, a kind of therapy for her and the other stars of the circuit (L’Equipe)
More deals
Mario Götze backs eAuction startup Crown €2m pre-Seed to transform procurement strategy (EU Startups)
World champion Toni Kroos becomes an investor in soccer start-up Prematch (Start Base)
Toni Kroos becomes a shareholder at Sports360 (Diario AS)
Venus Williams invests in WeWard app to promote a healthier world through walking (PR Newswire)
Natural energy drink startup MISSION, backed by F1 driver Pierre Gasly, raises £2m (Tech.eu)
Manchester United’s Dalot invests over €1m in Bioniq, joining Ronaldo (Tech Funding News)
A startup building 'Twitch for sports' just raised $22m from investors like Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six (Business Insider)
Demi Lovato joins hydration brand Caliwater as new partner and investor (Boardroom // The Hollywood Reporter)
FloSports raises Series D funding led by Dream Sports after record year (Florsports)
Zinedine Zidane invests €4m in a new padel center in Aix-en-Provence (The Padel Paper)
Cody Gakpo invests in InStudio Ventures to back promising startups and founders in emerging and significant sports (LinkedIn)
Pro Padel League raises $10m seed round as it prepares for second full season (Sports Business Journal)
PTO attracts new $10m investment as it looks to bring triathlon out of the ‘dark ages’ (Tri 27)
Boston Celtics sold to William Chisholm in record US$6.1bn deal (Sports Pro)
Rocket Youth, one of the leading and fastest-growing youth enrichment platforms in the United States, announces backing from sports industry veterans Maverick Carter and Daniel Sillman (Business Wire)
Cryptocurrency firm Tether announces strategic minority stake in Juventus Football Club (Tether)
Ari Emanuel-led group wins auction for Miami Open, Madrid Open assets (Sport Business Journal)
Closing picture
Some housekeeping…
If you can’t find the newsletter, check your spam folder. And please mark this address as ‘not spam.’ If the newsletter isn’t in your spam folder, either, you should look in the Promotions tab.
You can always see everything on the website.
Thanks again, and please tell a few friends if you feel like it.
Until next time!