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Confessions

The FTX debacle has been well documented. The company has always perplexed and fascinated in equal measure. Now it’s imploded.

FTX had deep links with sports, sponsoring teams like Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 and The Miami Heat. It sits – or more accurately, sat - at the intersection of so many trends in the business of sports.

One of those was athlete investment.

The aftermath of the company’s implosion is going to be long, messy, and painful. It’s already dragging the biggest names in sports into its gravitational pull.

Now a consortium of investors is suing the founder of FTX, along with several high-profile athletes who promoted the crypto exchange, alleging they took “advantage of unsophisticated investors from across the country.” Included in the class-action suit are FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, in addition to Tom Brady, Steph Curry, and Shaquille O’Neal.

This is a complex area. Athletes wear multiple commercial hats these days. They’re sports performers, influencers, brand ambassadors, founders, advisors, and sometimes, investors.

Crypto is a mimetic market. It feeds off celebrity endorsements, FOMO, and DMs from strangers promising the earth. And mass participation in investing (or gambling, depending on how you look at crypto), creates neat opportunities for athletes to monetise their influence and reach. It creates massive risks, too.

In this brave new era of crypto trading – where fortunes can be won and lost in a matter of hours – regulation is yet to catch up with reality. “Talking your own book” is becoming increasingly risky for athletes with personal brands to protect.

Not all risks are the same. As Donald Rumsfeld has pointed out:

“There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.”

The crypto market is different to other markets. It might be lucrative, fun, even philosophically compelling. But there are simply too many unknown unknowns for cultural icons like pro athletes to stake their reputations on it.

My sense is that the smartest (and best advised) athletes will pull back from the Russian roulette of cosying up to crypto and focus instead on traditional asset classes.

Standouts

📹 Arcturus Raises $11 Million Series A – The a volumetric video editing and streaming platform has raised an $11 million Series A round led by Cloudtree Ventures and joined by Autodesk and Epic Games.

🧠 Dementia prevention app Five Lives raises €3.7m – The direct-to-consumer startup is one of the first digital therapeutics for dementia startups in Europe.

🎲 Sports Micro Betting Provider Kero Gaming Closes Oversubscribed $2M Funding Round – Kero Gaming closed an oversubscribed $2 Million Seed 2 round, its second this year, with Happyhour.io, an early stage VC fund in the iGaming space, leading the round.

🇧🇪 Investors pour €1 million into Belgian health monitoring startup IntelliProve – IntelliProve's software has digital biomarkers for mental state, blood oxygen, blood pressure and respiratory rate.

🇬🇧 London startup Untap raises £1.1m for innovative water surveillance – Untap, a UK start-up that has developed a device capable of detecting and monitoring the spread of infectious diseases in sewage, has just secured a £100k investment from British Design Fund, as part of a £1.1m fundraise from specialist funds and angel investors.

Best of the rest

💰 Liverpool Could Launch Bidding War Between Richest Sports Owners – Mukesh Ambani, owner of the Indian Premier League’s Mumbai Indians, is interested in the Premier League club — but he may face opposition from Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who has recently been linked to Liverpool as well.

🎮 Ex-Fortnite and CoD employees form Methodical Games with $15M funding – Lightspeed Ventures-led round saw investments from Bitkraft Ventures, 1Up Ventures, and Transcend Fund. Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment founder Jason West and some angel investors also contributed.

📱 WellTheory raises $7.2 Million For Virtual Care Platform – The company is on a mission to support those living with autoimmunity and, in turn, reverse the autoimmune epidemic.

⚽️ NWSL Gains Private Equity Cash Amid Questions Over Lack of Rules – The NWSL is in the process of selling two expansion clubs to begin play in 2024. One is widely expected to be based in Utah, where MLS club Real Salt Lake’s new ownership group holds the rights to an expansion franchise at a bargain price.

🇬🇧 Harry Kane-backed health food brand Bio&Me scores extra £1.6m investment – The Tottenham striker first invested in Chester-based Bio&Me in March 2022 as part of a £1.4m deal. The company has deals with Asda, Boots, Holland & Barrett, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, the Co-op and Waitrose.

🩸 Amsterdam-based Clear.bio raises funds from Achmea to help people deal with Type 2 diabetes – The startup measures blood glucose levels in real-time using a chip-implanted arm patch and an app.

⚾️ Liberty Media spins off Atlanta Braves – Liberty Media will spin off its Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, the Atlanta Braves, and all of its associated assets, into a separate public company.

🏡 Health care startup raises $8.7M to help patients manage chronic conditions from home – Assure Health provides virtual care and remote monitoring programs for patients with chronic conditions.

🇮🇳 Flipkart-backed health tech startup BeatO snags $33M in Series B – Diabetes management app BeatO has raised $33 million in its Series B round of funding led by impact investor Lightrock India.

🏒 Ottawa Senators bidding war hotting up – As the bidding war for the National Hockey League (NHL) franchise intensifies after Galatioto Sports Partners were hired to help facilitate a sale, a joint offer from Michael Andlauer and Rocco Tullio is being prepared.

🇮🇳 Ayurveda startup NirogStreet raises $12M in Series B round led by Jungle Ventures – The round was led by Jungle Ventures. Existing investors Spiral Ventures, ICMG Co-Creation Fund and angel investors such as DoorDash's Gokul Rajaram and Japanese bank SMBC's APAC co-head Rajeev Kannan also participated in the round.

🇰🇷 Biotech startups with promising technologies attract investors – The Korean biotech and healthcare sector attracted 878.7 billion won from VC investors in the first three quarters of this year, down by 27.4 percent from the same period a year earlier, government data showed.

⛓ Eterlast raises €4.5m to develop sports NFTs and blockchain games – The round was led by venture capital firm Supernode Global, and included participation from Play Ventures, Active Partners, Founders Factory, Stake Capital and Immutable X.

🇳🇱 Startup Cradle raises $5.4M to design protein machines and cell factories with AI – Cradle, a Dutch startup, has received €5.5 million in seed funding to further help scientists design and program proteins to produce a wide variety of everyday products including milk and meat.

🧫 Centivax Raises $10M Seed Investment – Centivax, a broad-spectrum vaccine platform technology company, closed $10M in seed financing in a syndicate co-led by NFX and the Global Health Investment Corporation (GHIC).

⛓ Binance Labs Injects $4M into Ultimate Champions for Further Development of Web3 Gaming – Ultimate Champions has initiated an exclusive partnership with EuroLeague, a premier European-based professional basketball management company. The NFT fantasy sports platform also looks to expand into fantasy basketball next year.

🧴 Peace Out Skincare Receives a $20 Million Investment – Peace Out Skincare – known for being the first “skinclusive” acne lifestyle brand and bringing the first OTC-approved Acne Dot to market – closed a $20 million growth investment from 5th Century Partners.

🏈 NFL Star Nassib’s Charity App Lands VC Funding From Financial Finesse – Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ linebacker Carl Nassib launched a charity-focused app, Rayze, which has scored its first venture capital funding. The investment comes from Financial Finesse Ventures, a new VC fund from the Liz Davidson-led firm that works with the NFLPA on athlete financial education.

🇸🇪 Behold Ventures becomes Sweden’s largest venture capital firm – Behold Ventures has raised $25.9 million to fund investment in gaming startups, mainly in the fast-growing Nordic industry cluster in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

🤩 Virgil van Dijk invests in Whoop as part of global ambassador deal – Liverpool and Netherlands star joins roster of ambassadors that includes Michael Phelps, Rory McIlroy and Beth Mead.

💆‍♀️ Aescape Raises $30 Million Series A and Aims to Bring AI-Powered Massage Product to Market – Aescape, which is developing fully automated massage therapy, closed a $30 million Series A led by Valor Siren Ventures and Valor Equity Partners with participation from a few additional funds as well as existing investor and NBA All-Star Kevin Love.

🇧🇷 Brazilian healthtech Liti raises $4M seed-round to fight obesity – Brazil-based healthtech Liti closed a $4 million seed round. Investors include Monashees, Canary, Grão, Norte, Eclipseon, Newtopia, The Fund and Latitud.

🧠 US Air Force’s AFWERX Program Awards Polaris Genomics $1.25M toward accelerating its precision mental health solutions – Polaris Genomics is among an esteemed 67 companies selected for Phase II from approximately 700 proposals received.

🌶 Ultra-convenient healthy meals comment Proper Good closes seed funding – The round was led by led by YETI Capital and The Artisan Group.

🇳🇬 Topicals, the Fastest Growing Skincare Brand at Sephora, Raises $10M Series A – Topicals, the revolutionary skincare company that seeks to transform the way people feel about their skin through effective products and mental health advocacy, closed $10 million in new financing led by CAVU Consumer Partners.

💼 Northwell Holdings and Aegis Ventures Team Up and Invest $8.4M to Launch Upliv – Upliv will partner with employers to offer virtual telemedicine services and whole-person care to employees experiencing perimenopause and menopause symptoms.

🍺 Athletic Brewing Raises $75M – Keurig Dr Pepper bought a minority stake in Athletic Brewing for $50M as part of a larger $75M funding round.

👩‍💼 Maven Clinic closes $90M Series E – Maven Clinic, the largest virtual clinic in women's and family health, raised a $90 million Series E funding round led by General Catalyst, with participation from CVS Health Ventures, La Famiglia, and Intermountain Ventures, as well as existing investors Sequoia, Oak HC/FT, Icon Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group, and Lux Capital.

😴 Ceros Financial Services Arranges $7.5 Million Financing for Wesper – Wesper has developed the first clinical-grade FDA cleared platform to bring the full cycle of sleep therapy to home users.

🧴 Augustinus raises – Augustinus Bader closed a $15 million strategic funding round led by existing investor Impala and newcomer General Atlantic. The round saw the luxury skin care and hair care brand achieve a $1 billion valuation.

🧃 Honey Stinger Teams Up with Professional Athletes in $15M Equity Round – 10 professional athletes have joined the ownership team. The athletes participated alongside Honey Stinger’s main investor, Factory LLC, as part of a $15M raise for the rapidly growing sports nutrition brand. The investment was facilitated by Chaos Ventures.

👟 Holo Shoes Gets $5M Investment to Further Spark Sales – Holo was launched initially at Nordstrom and has since added Macy’s, REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Public Lands and other large retailers, with walmart.com coming on board for spring.

Some tweets

Arjay Ruggles 🎒 @LifeWithArjay – I am so unimaginably tired of seeing pre-product and pre-revenue companies raising millions while people solving real problems get nothing. I never wanted to be a VC, but I feel like I have to because the entire system is broken.

Squawk Box @SquawkCNBC – Today's #SquawkPod: In an extended interview Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger sits down with @BeckyQuick on the market’s reaction to #crypto, @elonmusk and $TSLA, and President Biden's meeting with China President Xi Jinping. LISTEN: link.chtbl.com/squawk_pod

Ryan Denehy @DenehyXXL – Looking back at how I got started building companies ~17 years ago it really came down to three things: 1. Just saying f*ck it and jumping into the deep end 2. Asking for help / advice from the most relevant people (often thru cold emails) 3. Never stopping

P.S.

The World Cup is finally here, and it’s 100% coming home… the question is, where?

Yours in sports,

Ed
—
Ed Rhys
Co-Founder / Skin In The Game
skininthegamegroup.com

Join our syndicate

If you find this newsletter useful, consider joining our FCA regulated investment syndicate connecting investors with groundbreaking startups in sports & health.

We enable angels to co-invest with leading funds, family offices & corporate venture, providing access to the very best deals.

Join Our Syndicate

SKIN IN THE GAME GROUP LIMITED is registered in England and Wales under Company Number 14338473 and with the FCA as an Appointed Representative with FRN 984265. SKIN IN THE GAME GROUP LIMITED is an Appointed Representative of Finex LLP which is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) with firm reference number 507537.

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