The 4th Quarter: Unicorn Video Game Startups & Latest In Sports Tech This Week, March 11th
New Era of Gaming, VCs Go All-In on Sports AI, New Job Board
Skip To What You Want To Read ⬇️
I. The Next $1 Billion Video Game Company
II. Weekly Startup Spotlight: Atlas Reality & Pahdo Labs
III. Sports-Tech Market Activity: VC, M&A, Deals, Strategic Ventures, & More
IV. Weekly Job Board: Sports, Media, Entertainment, Technology
The Next Billion Dollar Video Game
In addition to our typical musings on sports-tech, the adjacent esports market was blazing this week. Taking the world by storm literally overnight and described as “Pokémon with guns”, Palworld has broken the gaming world. With a budget of merely $6.7M, the Japanese Indie-game maker - Pocketpair Inc. - reportedly generated $442M (and counting) in revenue since January 2024!
Gamers say it’s the perfect combination of “Pokémon meets first-person shooter”
Action-adventure, survival, monster-taming game with animal-like creatures: ‘pals’
19M players in two weeks since launch, smashing records - 12M on Steam, 7M on Xbox
4th place in terms of Steam’s Best Selling Games, with ~100K in daily active players
25M units sold on Steam & Xbox as of February 2024
Despite all these incredible numbers, Nintendo has launched an investigation into potential copyright infringement. This news startled gamers, and admittedly dropped its user count by 1.5M+. Even with a meteoric rise, is this beginning of the end for Palworld?
Weekly Startup Spotlight:
If you are as bullish on the video game space as we are, check out the next generation of viral gaming businesses:
Atlas Reality - The future is here: making a living from playing mobile games! Presenting Atlas Reality, a digital metaverse that sits above our real world. The company allows players to buy & sell virtual real estate, accrue virtual rent, undertake missions, and receive real-life USD rewards. With over 2M+ downloads across Atlas Earth & Atlas Empire, the ATLAS metaverse amassed over 100K+ monthly active users. The company’s industry-leading merchant deal with VISA & Mastercard has returned $8M in direct tracked sales from players receiving in-game benefits when they spend in-store at partners such as Burger King, Jimmy John’s, Auntie Anne’s, Moe’s, Popeyes, and more. Since launch, Atlas Earth has generated $24M+ in revenue, and the combined apps are approaching $40M in cumulative sales. Addition: ATLAS:EARTH launched in Canada this week and is now a top 10 grossing finance app for both iOS & Android in the country. Also, it is the #1 Grossing Finance App for Google Play in the USA!
Founders: Sami Khan, Beau Button, Morgan Moon
Funding: Raised $8M+ as of mid-2023 from the CEO of Reddit, President of TikTok, Early Facebook employees, Founders of: Acorns, Honey, Mobilityware, among others
Pahdo Labs - If you are one of the 24M Americans who’ve contributed to the 118% increase in anime viewership over the last two years, you’ll enjoy this startup. Revolutionizing the anime role-playing-game genre, Pahdo Labs is building at the intersection of gaming, social, and anime. It allows players to build their own virtual worlds with AI and user-generated content tools. With anime games accounting for $17B of total mobile game spend in 2022, Pahdo Lab launched Halcyon Zero, the flagship game, and is opening up its developer tools for anyone to build their own mobile games. With lots of demand, the upcoming action game is currently only available via an email list playtesting opportunity.
Founder: Daniel Zou
Funding: Raised $15M Series A in late 2023 with Andreessen Horowitz leading the round, and participation from Pear VC, BoxGroup, Neo, Long Journey Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Mark Pincus (Founder of Zynga), and more
Sports-Tech Market Activity: Investors & Deals
Accelerators
Xsolla, a gaming developer focused on commerce within gaming, is expanding its Xsolla Funding Accelerator to all game developers in July 2024 (Mar. 4th)
Offers free educational resources, personalized mentorship, live Q&A sessions, and more to up-and-coming developers [VCWire]
Venture Capital
Betr, sports gaming/media/betting company, raises an additional $15M, bringing total Series A funding to $100M (Mar. 6th)
Investment was led by Harmony Partners & 10X Capital; other investors include Fuel Venture Capital, Aliya Capital Partners, and Eberg Capital [FinSMEs]
Pro Shop, new media/commerce company focused on golf, raised $20M in Series A funding (Mar. 7th)
Taking advantage in golf’s recent boom in popularity with a Gen Z focus
Investment was led by Powerhouse Capital; other investors include PGA Tour, EP Golf Venture, Marquee Ventures, and more [PGATour]
Jabali, generative AI game engine for users to create new games & interactive experiences, raises $5M in funding (Mar. 6th)
Expanding its developer team and refining its LLM’s to accelerate product launch
Investment was led by Vatsal Bhardwaj, a former executive for leading tech companies [FinSMEs]
Good Trouble, remote gaming studio that recently came out of stealth, announced a $1.8M funding round completed last year (Mar. 7th)
Developing a real-time strategy game with consistent updates and cross-platform play
Investment was led by Skycatcher; other investors include Mitch Lasky and 1Up Ventures [PRNewswire]
Hook, music-tech platform that empowers artists through services such as monetizing fan-generated remixes, raises additional seed funding, bringing it to $3.5M (Mar. 7th)
Investment was led by Point72 Ventures & Waverly Capital [FinSMEs]
EQ Tickets, ticketing platform that offers unique social features, raises an undisclosed amount (Mar. 4th)
Investment was led by Sage Venture Partners [FinSMEs]
Passes, CRM/subscription platform that helps creators connect with fans through unique experiences & exclusive content, raises $40M in Series A funding (Mar. 3rd)
Expanding operations by hiring engineering, operations, customer support, marketing, and sales teams
Investment was led by Bond Capital; other investors include Abstract Ventures, Crossbeam Ventures, and more [FinSMEs]
Raspberry AI, generative AI platform that enables fashion designers to go-to-market and increase sales, raised $4.5M in seed funding (Mar. 3rd)
Investors include Greycroft, Khosla Ventures, MVP Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and other independents [FinSMEs]
M&A and Investments
Equinox, luxury gym brand, secured $1.8B in new capital from Sixth Street & Silver Lake (Mar. 8th)
Refinancing its maturing loans and using remaining funds to open new clubs [Sixth Street]
Diamond Kinetics, developer of training technology for bat-and-ball sports, acquired SidelineHD, youth sports streaming startup (Mar. 7th)
Integrating Diamond Kinetics’s sensor data and training into Sideline’s video streaming platform [SBJ]
PGA Tour’s recent strategic investment includes additional committed capital from rapper Drake and Lebron (Mar. 4th)
Company sees Drake and Lebron as avenues to broaden current audience [SBJ]
Mercury 13, multi-club ownership group of women’s soccer franchises, acquired its first club in its portfolio, Como Women, Lake Como-based franchise in Italy’s Serie A (Mar. 4th)
Mercury 13 is focused on improving the club’s business operation and supporting their athletes [SBJ]
Fitlab, multi-brand performance, fitness, and lifestyle company that has major partnerships such as Nike Studios, received $65M in strategic financing from Atlas Credit Partners (Mar. 6th)
Acquired a “cutting-edge fitness equipment manufacturing” to improve their customer fitness experience [Athletech News]
Photo: Drake & Lebron are expanding their business presence in golf through the PGA Tour
Strategic Ventures
Steve Ballmer launches new brand Halo Sports and Entertainment, holding company for his assets LA Clippers, Ontario Clippers, Intuit Dome, and KIA Forum (Mar. 7th)
Will help establish a brand identity for Ballmer’s sports portfolio [Forbes]
Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team partners with Memento Exclusives, F1 sports memorabilia company, to produce and sell show simulators of its AMR24 car (Mar. 4th)
Currently listed for sale at $155,304; a simulator signed by drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will also be auctioned off [SBJ]
WNBA partners with Genius Sports, sports data & analytics platform, signing a multi-year, league-wide agreement (Mar. 5th)
Use Genius Sport’s product Second Spectrum optical tracking cameras to gain access to 3D player & ball data [SBJ]
CricViz, cricket data analytics provider, becomes the official data analysis & insights partner of Star, a leading Indian broadcaster for cricket (Mar. 4th)
Partnership will provide data insights used for on-screen graphics during broadcasting for upcoming 2024 IPL Season & ICC Men’s T20 World Cup [SBJ]
Sportian, sports tech solutions provider, is partnering with StadioPlus, Spanish metaverse developer, to provide new revenue opportunities for its clients (Mar. 5th)
Focused on opening new monetization channels through the metaverse for athletes, leagues, and brands [SBJ]
Infosys and the ATP Tour extend their current partnership until 2026 (Mar. 6th)
ATP Tour will continue to leverage Infosys’s AI & data analytics features to improve fan engagement [SBJ]
Bankruptcies
Bowflex, once a leading personal fitness equipment manufacturer/seller, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (Mar. 5th)
Agreed to a post-bankruptcy sale of its company to Johnson Health Tech Retail for $37.5M [Athletech News]
Job Board & Opportunities: Week March 11th
Every week, the job board is personally curated for openings that are not widely posted. Spanning business development to software engineering and everything in between - entry level jobs to senior leadership - here’s to those looking for new opportunities in 2024:
1. Athletico Ventures - Investment Analyst & Chief of Staff Intern
2. Houston Astros - Business Strategy & Analytics Intern
3. Buffalo Bills - Business Development Assistant: $17/hr
4. Kroenke Sports & Entertainment - Finance Intern: $18.29/hr
5. Hive - Sports & Entertainment Product Analyst: 1-3 Years of Experience / $105K
6. Los Angeles Dodgers - Senior Business Analyst: 2-5 Years of Experience / $95K
7. Los Angeles Lakers - Account Manager, Global Partnerships: ~3 Years of Experience / $85K
8. Nouveau Productions LLC - Chief of Staff: $125K
9. OneTeam Partners - Senior Manager, Corporate Strategy & Growth: ~4 Years of Experience
10. FIFA World Cup 2026 - Head of Strategy & Analytics: 10 Years of Experience