Courtside Ventures, a New York-based early-stage VC firm, raised $100 million for a fund focused on sports, gaming and lifestyle companies. Fund III investors include a globally diverse group of the industry across professional sports team owners, athletes and industry executives, including Dick’s Sporting Goods.
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 in eight countries. Notable investments 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, and others.
The announcement brings Courtside Ventures’ committed capital to over $200 million under management.
“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,” said Deepen Parikh, partner, Courtside Ventures. “We will also continue to put a strong emphasis on global investment opportunities as our vertical focus and learnings from the U.S. 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.”
Among the 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 and other strategic investors in Fund III include Dicks Sporting Goods, Superbet, Arctos Partners, Wellness Holding (TechnoGym founder) and Gametime Capital (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.
