Venture firms push into pro sports ownership

Venture capital has spent decades funding software, marketplaces, and consumer brands. Now two firms are testing whether the same model can work for professional sports franchises. Collaborative Fund, a 15-year-old New York generalist venture firm, is taking a stake in the soccer club D.C. United and its stadium, Audi Field — the latest and smallest firm to follow a path Thrive Capital opened earlier.

According to reporting by TechCrunch, the deal remains subject to Major League Soccer approval. The move marks a departure from how venture money has historically entered sports: through individual tech fortunes or private equity, not through the venture funds themselves.

A different kind of sports bet

Collaborative Fund manages roughly $1 billion and has made early bets on Lyft, Reddit, Sweetgreen, and Olipop. Its stake in D.C. United is being made out of the same early-stage fund it uses to write seed and Series A checks, according to TechCrunch. That is a notable structural choice, and it differs sharply from how Thrive Capital approached the same idea.

Thrive, led by Joshua Kushner, launched a dedicated vehicle called Thrive Eternal, built to hold what the firm describes as “iconic franchises and cultural institutions” for decades. That vehicle is funded by many of the same investors already in Thrive’s venture and growth funds. Thrive kicked off the effort with a stake in the San Francisco Giants. Months later, the same vehicle — with former Disney CEO Bob Iger, a Thrive partner, joining as co-owner — bought the Lakers outright for a record $12.5 billion.

Collaborative is not building a standalone, permanent-capital vehicle. It is treating the deal less like something to buy and hold and more like infrastructure, in TechCrunch’s framing — an asset that connects to the rest of its portfolio rather than sitting apart from it.

The pitch: a franchise as a consumer product

In a memo shared with TechCrunch, Collaborative Fund founder and managing partner Craig Shapiro framed the deal as an extension of what the firm already does.

“A franchise is the ultimate consumer product,”

— Craig Shapiro, founder and managing partner of Collaborative Fund

Shapiro argued that D.C. United’s status as one of Major League Soccer’s original clubs gives Collaborative access to an institution with a decades-long fan base to build on. He pointed to tailwinds around American soccer specifically, including a World Cup just behind the sport and the LA Olympics ahead of it, as well as soaring youth participation numbers in the U.S.

He also cited D.C.’s ownership of Audi Field in Washington, D.C., a talent-development pipeline through Loudoun County, Virginia, and rights to a future Baltimore expansion team.

What Collaborative wants to do with the stadium

The thesis Shapiro laid out at a TechCrunch StrictlyVC event Thursday night in New York is less about owning a piece of an appreciating asset — the sports team itself — and more about what the team makes possible. Collaborative wants to turn Audi Field into what he describes as a living showcase for its own portfolio.

As a backer of both fitness band maker Whoop and the beverage brand Olipop, Collaborative Fund is imagining a Whoop wearables activation for fans, or Olipop drinks woven into game-day concessions. Shapiro is thinking about the stadium’s foot traffic — tens of thousands of people showing up on a predictable schedule — as a distribution channel at a time when, because AI is making more of daily life feel synthetic, live experiences are becoming more valuable.

Shapiro doesn’t dwell on this, but it surely helped sell Collaborative’s investors that team valuations have been soaring, so the stake could pay off on its own.

How the two approaches diverge

Historically, money has poured into pro sports two other ways: individual tech fortunes and private equity. Vinod Khosla and his family agreed this summer to buy the Seattle Seahawks for a record $9.6 billion, soon after the Khosla family also took a stake in the San Francisco 49ers alongside OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor. That was a personal-wealth play.

Private equity firms have also been at this for years. Sixth Street holds stakes in the Boston Celtics, the New England Patriots, and MLB’s San Francisco Giants. Ares owns a piece of the Miami Dolphins outright and separately financed Chelsea’s stadium plans through a $500 million preferred-equity deal. RedBird owns AC Milan outright and holds a minority stake in Fenway Sports Group, the holding company behind Liverpool and the Red Sox. Arctos has minority positions scattered across MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and European soccer. Apollo, the newest entrant, has mostly stuck to sports financing deals so far rather than ownership stakes.

Thrive and Collaborative are doing neither of those things. At the same time, the two firms’ approaches to sports ownership look very different. Thrive built a standalone, permanent-capital vehicle specifically to hold trophy assets. Collaborative is investing out of the same early-stage fund it uses to write seed and Series A checks, and treating the deal less like something to buy and hold and almost more like infrastructure.

Why soccer valuations are part of the calculus

Team valuations have been climbing, and soccer valuations in particular have been on a tear. Inter Miami’s franchise value has roughly doubled in the two years since Lionel Messi arrived. MLS’s average club value is up roughly 134% since 2019. D.C. United’s own valuation has climbed from $35 million in 2008 to $785 million today, factoring in its ownership of Audi Field and the surrounding real estate.

• Thrive Eternal’s Lakers purchase: a record $12.5 billion
• Khosla family’s Seahawks purchase: a record $9.6 billion
• Ares’ Chelsea stadium financing: a $500 million preferred-equity deal
• MLS average club value: up roughly 134% since 2019
• D.C. United valuation: from $35 million in 2008 to $785 million today

The fund structure question

One of the most consequential differences between the two plays is structural. Thrive’s model rests on a dedicated vehicle funded by existing Thrive investors, with a mandate to hold assets for decades. Collaborative’s model puts the D.C. United stake inside its early-stage fund — the same pool that backs seed and Series A startups.

That distinction matters for how each firm’s investors think about risk and time horizon. A dedicated permanent-capital vehicle can hold an asset indefinitely without pressure to return capital on a fund cycle. An early-stage fund typically operates on a different clock. Collaborative’s approach implies a different set of expectations about how the D.C. United stake fits alongside its startup positions.

TechCrunch reported that the deal is subject to MLS approval, meaning the structure Collaborative has described is not yet finalized.

Where the money has historically come from

The venture route is new. Before it, individual fortunes dominated. Khosla’s Seahawks deal and his family’s stake in the 49ers alongside Bret Taylor are recent examples of personal-wealth plays. Private equity, meanwhile, has been in sports ownership for years — Sixth Street, Ares, RedBird, and Arctos all hold positions across leagues and continents. Apollo has largely stayed on the financing side.

What Thrive and Collaborative share is that they are using investor capital pooled through venture vehicles rather than a single person’s balance sheet or a private equity fund. That is the shift TechCrunch’s reporting identifies.

What Shapiro says the franchise enables

Shapiro’s framing centers on what the team makes possible rather than on the team as a standalone investment. He describes Audi Field as a living showcase for Collaborative’s portfolio, with Whoop wearables activations and Olipop concessions as examples.

The stadium’s foot traffic — tens of thousands of people arriving on a predictable schedule — is what makes it attractive as a distribution channel. Shapiro connects that to a broader point: as AI makes more of daily life feel synthetic, live experiences become more valuable.

He also points to American soccer’s momentum, with a World Cup just behind the sport and the LA Olympics ahead. Youth participation numbers in the U.S. are soaring, according to the reporting. D.C. United’s ownership of Audi Field, the Loudoun County talent pipeline, and rights to a future Baltimore expansion team round out the assets cited.

What happens next

The deal awaits MLS approval. If it clears, Collaborative will hold a stake in one of the league’s original clubs and its stadium, with a stated plan to use the venue as a showcase for portfolio companies.

Thrive, for its part, has already moved beyond its initial Giants stake to an outright Lakers purchase at a record price, with Bob Iger as co-owner on that deal. The two firms are pursuing the same broad idea — venture capital into sports ownership — through different structures and different stated rationales.

Whether either approach pays off depends on factors the reporting does not resolve: how valuations move, how the stadium-as-showcase idea performs in practice, and how investors in each fund ultimately weigh the results.

This matters for anyone watching how venture capital allocates beyond software. The two deals offer distinct models: one builds a permanent vehicle for trophy assets; the other folds a sports stake into an early-stage fund as a kind of infrastructure. Investors, founders, and sports executives now have two live experiments to observe. What they conclude may shape whether more venture firms follow — and how they structure the move if they do.