Sports VC Courtside Ventures Raises $100M Fund

Courtside Ventures is an early-stage VC company investing in category-defining businesses across lifestyle, gaming, and sports. Today, they announced their $100M Fund III.

Courtside’s investment strategy has been a success since its inception in 2016. They have invested in over 80 companies that are thematically focused in 8 countries.

Fund I is among the top 10% of all vintage venture funds. It has already returned 1.61X net DPI proceeds.

Notable investments include The Athletic, which was acquired by The New York Times. Beam, which was acquired by Microsoft. StockX, 100Thieves, WinZO, VEO, Religion of Sports, Rei do Pitaco, Freeletics, FanCraze, and Paceline. 

“Courtside Ventures has a track record of successfully backing and accelerating culture-shaping companies that are driving innovation, and with Fund III we will continue to invest with conviction in great founders and disruptive ideas in our key verticals of sports, fitness, collectibles and gaming,” says Deepen Parikh, partner at Courtside Ventures. “We will also continue to put a strong emphasis on global investment opportunities as our vertical focus and learnings from the US market are applicable to larger and higher growth regions. We remain heavily committed to our portfolio companies, all of which are well positioned to maintain resilience in a market where calculated execution is key.”

With this announcement we’ve seen nearly a billion dollars head towards sports-focused investment funds in the last several months.

Notable Investors:

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 Johnson and 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:

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).

Athlete Investors: 

Larry FitzgeraldShaquille O’Neal, Jacob Trouba, among other athlete investors.

The large majority of Fund III investors returned from prior Courtside funds, joined by more than 50 new relationships. The announcement brings Courtside Ventures’ total committed capital to over $200M AUM.

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