Inside 359 Capital: The Sports Backed Venture Fund Investing Beyond Sport

How sports owners, teams, venues and global brands are helping the former Sapphire Sport invest across sport, artificial intelligence, media, commerce and consumer technology.

City Football Group, adidas, AEG, Madison Square Garden, Sinclair, Pentland Group, Arctos and owners connected to every major US sports league have all backed 359 Capital.

Yet only 6 of its 31 portfolio companies are direct sports businesses. Most operate across artificial intelligence, gaming, social platforms, creator software, commerce and consumer products.

That is what makes this strategy interesting.

Sport is not the limit of the portfolio. It is the advantage behind it.

359’s investors provide industry knowledge, credibility, customer relationships and access to teams, leagues, venues, broadcasters and consumer brands. Portfolio companies can use that network to enter the sports market, test their products and win customers while still building for much larger industries.

Sports organisations control enormous audiences and commercial networks, but rarely invest like specialist venture firms. Traditional venture firms understand startups, but often lack direct access to the operators who control those assets.

I believe 359 is sitting between the two.

Its strongest investments can benefit from sport without depending entirely on it. The opportunity is to use a specialist sports network to build ownership across the wider consumer economy.

365247 Sports breaks down the investment strategy and thesis behind 359 Capital, analyses the portfolio it is building and wider ecosystem.