USA – Courtside Ventures, a New York-based early-stage VC firm investing in category-defining companies across sports, gaming and lifestyle, launched its $100M Fund III.
Fund III investors included a globally diverse group of industry across professional sports team owners, athletes and industry executives*. Early Fund III investments include Hypothetic, Matchday, Mojo, Xpoint, Jackpot.com, Venly, Planet Mojo, Bezel, Fliff, Fermat and Fello.Since its launch in 2016, Courtside has invested in more than 80 thematically-focused companies across 8 countries. Notable investments since inception include The Athletic (acquired by The New York Times), Beam (acquired by Microsoft), StockX, 100Thieves, WinZO, VEO, Religion of Sports, Rei do Pitaco, Freeletics, FanCraze, and Paceline, among several others.The announcement brings Courtside Ventures’ total committed capital to over $200M AUM.* Team owners include Tony Ressler (Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Ares Management and Majority Owner of Atlanta Hawks), Dan Gilbert(Founder & Chairman of Rocket Mortgage and Chairman of Cleveland Cavaliers), David Blitzer (Co-Owner of Philadelphia 76ers, NJ Devils, Cleveland Guardians and Crystal Palace), Dee and Jimmy Haslam (CEO, Chairman and Managing Partners at Haslam Sports Group), Whitney Haslam Johnsonand JW Johnson (Partners at Haslam Sports Group), Tisch Family (Lowes Corporation and Co-owners of New York Giants), Lerner Family (Lerner Enterprises and Majority Owners of Washington Nationals), Idan Ofer (Principal of Quantum Pacific Group and Co-Owner Atletico Madrid), Alec Litowitz (Founder of Magnetar Capital and Minority Owner of D.C. United), John Burbank (Founder of Passport Capital and Executive Board Member of Golden State Warriors), Dan Sundheim (Founder & CIO at D1 Capital Partners and Minority Owner of Charlotte Hornets), among several others. Corporations and other strategic investors in Fund III include Dicks Sporting Goods, Superbet, Arctos Partners, Wellness Holding (family office of TechnoGym founder) and Gametime Capital (family office of Richard Fairbank, Founder and CEO of Capital One, which specializes in sports and sports technology investments). Athletes who have invested include Larry Fitzgerald, Shaquille O’Neal and Jacob Trouba, among others.20/01/2023
