Startups Investment Recap – March 10

Sports Licensing Giant Fanatics To Launch In China With New Joint Venture

Michael Rubin with his e-commerce company Fanatics expanding to China! Fanatics that completed a USD 350 million Series E at a valuation of USD 6.2 Bn announced on the February 25th, 2021 that it has plans to do a joint venture with Hillhouse Capital, an Asia-focused private equity firm with focus on online retailers.

Ronaldo ‘Fenômeno’ creates holding company to accelerate investments in eSports

Ronaldo the brazilian world champion has been investin heavly in the last years in the sports industry. He started his business career building a marketing agency with focus on sponsorship and career management of athlets following by buying Real Valladolid, the spanish futball club, in 2016 for USD 26m. Ronaldos next step is now to set up a holding with the focus on accelerating his investments in eSports.

Celeb Meet and Greet Startup Looped Touts $8M Seed Round Backed by Suh, Will Ventures

Looped, a virtual-venue platform that was launched in October 2019, just before COVID-19, allows celebs to offer paywalled videos events and meet-and greets with fans, announced a USD 7.7 million seed round. This funding round is led by Will Ventures and other celebrities.

7 Acqusitions in the Sports Tech Industry happened during COVID-19

While we were in lockdown, Google, Lululemon, Nike and others were actively acquiring Sports Tech companies (paying over $8B). How will this impact the Sports Universe in 2021?