Sports industry veteran Craig Thompson has raised $44 million for his new sports tech fund, Match Ventures.
The general partner is Thompson, founder of. Mindspring Capital, an investor focused on sports technology. Anton Brams is also the managing partner of MindSpring Sports, the advisory and incubator he and Thompson lead. Match Ventures is also led by Petr Zhukov, founder and head of investment at Indigo Sports Tech, his sports-focused VC firm.
Match Ventures has raised about a third of the funding with the goal of closing within a year. They are looking to support 20 companies with initial checks and subsequent funding ranging from $250,000 to $2 million.
Sports is a hot sector for investors. early and later stagewith technology giants like Amazon It is spending a lot of money on sports rights and expanding sports betting. Thompson told Business Insider that he’s interested in supporting companies that help teams and leagues improve profitability, such as by increasing fan engagement or improving team performance.
He sees an opportunity to capitalize on the ever-growing proliferation of new sports, from pickleball to sports volleyballExpansion of sports such as . cricket To America. Match Ventures is based in Luxembourg, and its partners believe they have easy access to the wealth of sports technology investment capital available outside the United States.
“There’s an explosion of new leagues and new sports right now,” Thompson said. “And all sports need technology.”
The idea for Match Ventures came from a meeting with Zhukov, who along with Mindspring had invested in a company called Horizm, Thompson added. “We started talking and realized that we looked at the sports technology world in the same way and invested in very similar companies,” he said.
Match Ventures etc. Venture capitalists reconsider their approach to due diligence. Instead of taking several months to evaluate a company, Match Ventures plans to advise startups for six to 12 months before deciding whether to fund them. This is the approach Thompson and Brams are taking with their MindSpring sport, and they call it “thorough due diligence.” They have advised 15 companies in this way, 10 of which are ready for funding.
Due diligence is being done attract new attention After the collapse of virtual currency giant FTX, we are in the middle of a fierce competition to invest in hot new companies. Thompson said his early investment experience taught him that traditional processes don’t always identify problems that can arise later.
“I thought I could make better investments and do more for companies,” he said of his advice approach. “And is it really fair to invest in companies you don’t believe in and hope that one or two out of 10 will do well and turn a profit?”
Their pitch for a more careful process may be an easy sell, even for some in the popular sports sector, given today’s tough funding environment.
Match Ventures’ leaders also bring a combination of sports industry, data, and finance experience that is valuable to many founders. For example, Mr. Thompson said that in 1992 he helped create the UEFA Champions League, then the Champions He played in the Hockey League, and then the 34th Americas He became the CEO of the Cup. Brams founded sports technology company Oppia Performance, and he served as director of product for Genius Sports, a data and technology company. Zhukov comes from a banking background and worked at Credit Suisse and UBS before starting Indigo in 2011.
Thompson said he will continue to run MindSpring Capital, which helps early-stage companies. The company’s portfolio includes sports livestream company LIGR Live. Credenza uses blockchain to strengthen the relationships between teams, athletes, and fans. And Pumpjack is a platform that provides data about fans.
