Athlete and activist Colin Kaepernick and his partner’s Canadian businessman Jim Nikopoulos and activist Akim Aliu have made a seed investment in Naomi Osaka’s KINLÒ brand with Kaepernick joining the brand’s board of directors. Osaka has also brought on a new brand President, Mia Meachem, who joins KINLÒ with over 20 years of brand marketing experience with roles across notable beauty brands including Drunk Elephant – a part of the Shiseido organization, The Estee Lauder Companies, and Burt’s Bees. In her new role as President, Meachem will help to drive
Serena Williams’s early-stage venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, has raised an inaugural fund of $111 million that will invest in founders with diverse points of view. The achievement comes nine years after she first started the project and has taken on a portfolio of more than 60 angel investments. The investments were all backed by the athlete’s own money. For those who aren’t aware – an angel investor is an individual who uses their own funds to support a start-up company or project. “As an angel investor, you can only
NBA Star Jrue Holiday And Olympian Lauren Holiday To Provide $1M In Grants To Black-Owned Businesses
NBA All-Star Jrue Holiday and his wife, who is two-time Olympic gold medalist, Lauren Holiday, are on an admirable mission to help more Black-owned businesses and Black-led nonprofits. In this third round of grant funding, the athletic superstar couple will continue Jrue’s 2019-2020 season commitment where he pledged to donate a portion of his salary to the couple’s organization. Grants will be provided to organizations and small businesses that are located in the Greater Milwaukee, New Orleans, Indianapolis, and Los Angeles areas with priority given to those with a focus on social impact
Virtual cycling platform Zwift has revealed its plans for the second year of its Black Celebration Series with its approach this year being three-pronged. It will focus on Internal education programs, social impact initiatives and celebratory rides all throughout 2022. Last year Zwift first introduced its 12-month series of events that’s intended to celebrate the achievements of Black athletes with group rides led by featured athletes. At the launch Zwift said: “We are creating an inclusive environment that empowers and uplifts the community as a whole.” Zwift is running a
NBA Star Klay Thompson Takes On The Tech World With New Investment In Fantasy Sports Startup Sleeper
Basketball superstar Klay Thompson has just invested in fantasy sports startup Sleeper, reportedly contributing to the quadrupling of its value to more than $400 million. Sleeper is a compilation of football and basketball games that people can play online with friends. Its initial focus was on the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), but the pandemic’s impact pushed the firm to get into esports as well. The company has gone from strength to strength despite pushback from coronavirus, with an average user reportedly spending between 20 to 35 minutes on
Former ESPN data scientist Tiffany Kelly has just raised $2.1million in a seed round of funding for her adtech startup Curastory. The company, first launched in 2019, is a creator tool helping student-athletes by “connecting brands in need of video content with athletes, influencers, and actors who create video content and are willing to create directly for brands,” according to Sport Techie. Lightspeed, Techstars, and Mindspring Capital led the funding round to help Curastory’s staff expansion, market growth, and sales and engineering footprint. The milestone seed comes after the firm secured a deal with
