Insights about athlete-investors #17

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…

• Athletico Ventures participated in Neat’s $55m Series A alongside Hedosophia, Alma Mundi Venture, and more (LinkedIn // TechCrunch). Neat simplifies insurance by integrating it into the products and services people use, making it transparent and effortless.

• Athletico Ventures participated in Gladia’s $16m Series A alongside XAnge, Illuminate Financial, Motier Ventures, and more (LinkedIn // EU Startups). Gladia’s cutting-edge speech-to-text engine makes it easy to retrieve actionable insights from audio data.

• Jump, one of Athletico Ventures’ early investments, raised a €11m Series A from Breega and existing investors such as Index Ventures, RAISE, and more (LinkedIn // EU Startups). Jump provide freelancers with a reliable base of tools and all the benefits of salaried employment.

• Athletico Ventures was on stage at SuperInvestor in Monte Carlo (LinkedIn // Informa Connect) and attended Slush to meet top-tier tech entrepreneurs and investors (LinkedIn)

• Athletico Ventures earned a spot in the Institut Choiseul's 2024 Sport & Business Ranking, which showcases young leaders under 40 making a significant impact on the French sports industry (LinkedIn)

• We organised exclusive events across Paris, London, Madrid, and Munich, bringing together exceptional athletes and tech folks (founders and investors). It’s amazing to see the mutual respect and inspiration when these two worlds collide.

• Lionel Messi's Play Time Ventures backs SuperAnnotate’s $36m Series B (SuperAnnotate)

• Premier League players Harry Maguire and Reece James participate in Lawhive’s $40m Series A alongside Balderton Capital, Jigsaw and Episode 1 (TechCrunch)

• Michael Jordan invests in Courtside Ventures’ next $100m fund (LinkedIn // Sportico)

• Kylian Mbappé invests in German electronics manufacturer Loewe (Les Echos)

• Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry invest in Michelle Obama's children health-focused company, PLEZi Nutrition (Afrotech)

• NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo launches BYL Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on sports, entertainment, consumer products, and technology (LinkedIn // PR Newswire)

• Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick launches Lumi, an AI company for content creators (Forbes // Bloomberg)

• David Beckham co-founds health company IM8 (Well To Do)

• Ex-NBA athlete Omri Casspi launches $60M fund targeting cybersecurity, cloud infra and AI (Yahoo Finance)

• UFC star Conor McGregor enters music industry with launch of Greenback Records (Sports Illustrated)

• 2x NBA champion Kevin Durant invests in Paris Saint-Germain (Sportico)

• Juan Mata becomes co-owner of San Diego FC, following in David Beckham's footsteps (The Guardian)

• Andrés Iniesta becomes co-owner of Danish third-tier club Helsingør (The Guardian)

• Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly takes up padel (Inside the games)

• Scottie Scheffler, Randy Moss invest in sports fishing league (Sportico)

…. and more at the bottom of this email….

The podcast explores the intersection of sports and business through in-depth conversations with industry leaders. Each episode delves into critical topics such as the challenges of building sports franchises, creating global athlete brands, and navigating the financial and operational dynamics of various leagues. Join Charlie & Harry Stebbings as they gain insights from CEOs, agents, and innovators, it provides a behind-the-scenes look at the strategies shaping the sports industry today. Two of my favourites with inspiring leaders at the heart of the sports industry:

Investing-related

• From access to edit: how AI is meeting a values shift among consumers (Forerunner)

• Hussein Kanji from Hoxton Ventures on how just much he made from investing in Deliveroo and Darktrace (Podcast)

• Harry Stebbings raises $400m with 20VC, one of Europe’s biggest venture funds (Financial Times)

• State of AI report 2024: Where is Europe winning? (sifted)

• How to be a VC before you know if you’re any good at it (Ferdi Sigona)

Celebrity & sports-related

• How The Chainsmokers built a fund that doesn't rely on their celebrity status? (YouTube)

• The rise of venture-backed sports leagues (Aaron Miller)

• NFL owners vote to allow private equity funds to buy stakes in teams (NFL)

• The power of athletes to become media companies and transform the game (Forbes)

• Here's how NBA stars are setting themselves up for success when the game is over (Entrepreneur)

• Footballer Inc: How the sport’s elite build their brands (The Athletic)

Gladia

• Jean-Louis Quéguiner was invited on the Caveminds podcast to deep dive into the role of audio AI and how Gladia is revolutionizing conversational AI platforms (Youtube)

• Gladia published it’s “Ultimate Guide to Using LLMs with Speech Recognition to Build Voice Apps” (Gladia)

• Gladia launched it’s new real-time API product (LinkedIn)

Ōura

• Oura has acquired metabolic health startup Veri (TechCrunch)

• Ōura Ring 4 was displayed on Las Vegas’ sphere (LinkedIn)

• Ōura announced the rollout of Symptom Radar, a feature that helps detecting early signs of illness by analyzing key biometrics (Ōura)

Cowboy

• Cowboy unveiled it’s new e-bike co-designed by adidas (Cowboy)

• Cowboy has been featured on the Sifted 75: Nordic & Benelux Leaderboard for 2024 (sifted)

Jump

• Jump launched Jump Open, a billing tool and a free professional account for freelancers (LinkedIn)

Samara

• Samara expanded its Series A to €10.5m thanks to Mustard Seed Maze fund (La Razon)

• Samara was recognised as one of the 101 most innovative companies according to the Spain Up Nation (Top101 Spain Up Nation)

Scoreplay

• Scoreplay unveiled its new branding (Scoreplay // LinkedIn)

• Victorien Tixier and Xavier Green have both been featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Sports list 2025 (Forbes)

Syntetica

• Syntetica unveiled its new branding (LinkedIn)

• Syntetica was selected as one of the 40 most promising and fast growing startups of STATION F (Maddyness)

• Paul-Henry Mathieu visited Syntetica to learn more about their nylon recycling process (LinkedIn)

Umiami

• Umiami unveiled its new branding and became Swap Food (LinkedIn)

• Swap Food took advantage of this rebranding to also announce its launch in Nothern America and more specifically in Chicago (LinkedIn)

Celebrity & sports-related

• Ivan Gazidis - by far one of the most inspiring journeys in sports business (YouYube)

• What will European basketball will look like in 5 years? (LinkedIn)

• What Murvah Iqbal learnt from captaining Manchester City’s youth team (The Times)

• Ex football-player Giorgio Chiellini launches Akka Italy alongside Thomas Rebaud (LinkedIn)

• Jamaican Track & Field star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce launches new hair care line ‘AFIMI’ (Players TV)

• Former tennis pro CiCi Bellis on launching her own VC to invest in sports and health tech (Sports Business Journal)

More deals

• MMA Superstar Conor McGregor increases his ownership stake in Alta Global Group (Morning Star)

• Olympic skateboarding bronze medalist Nyjah Huston invested in Linkme, an all-encompassing link-in-bio platform (The Athlete Lifestyle)

• Harry Kane-backed football startup, TOCA Football Inc., raises $100m to expand (Bloomberg)

• Ex-barcelona player, Martin Braithwaite wants to buy RCD Espanyol weeks after leaving them (Forbes)

• Travis Kelce in talks to invest $8m to build golf courses in the USA (Daily Mail)

• Joey Harrington, Ashton Eaton among newest Portland Thorns investors (Yahoo Sports)

• George Pyne's Bruin Capital launches soccer agency As1 valued at $310m (Sportico)

• Oslo-based SportAI raises €1.6m to harness computer vision for sports technique coaching (EU Startups)

• Former Manchester United star Nani has acquired a majority stake in fourth-division club SU Sintrense with plans to elevate it to the Primeira Liga (Mundo Deportivo)

• TickPick announces $250m growth investment from Brighton Park Capital (Business Wire)

• Bridgerton actress, Charithra Chandran, backs London-based Arāya Ventures’ $25m angel fund (Tech Funding News)

• Kelce Brothers sign deal with Amazon’s Wondery for ‘New Heights’ podcast worth more than $100m (Variety)

• Manchester United legend Patrice Evra launches Player, a networking app for footballers (Sport Industry Group)

• Basketball legend and entertainer Shaquille O'Neal introduces Shaq-A-Licious XL Gummies, a new line of oversized gummy candies (Web Disclosure)

• Former Manchester United and Ireland star John O’Shea invests in GoChallenge (Business Wire)

• Junior Bridgeman buying stake in Milwaukee Bucks in a deal that values team at $4Bn (CNBC)

• Morgan, Mcelhenney, Wasserman invest in Classic Football Shirts (Sportico)

• Ed Sheeran Buys a Minority Stake in Ipswich Town (Versus)

• Golf GameBook raises €2.5m to accelerate European growth (Golf Business News)

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