Venture capital funds focused on niche sectors are “in”, and Will Ventures is here for it.
This low-flying Boston-based venture outfit just tripled the size of its second fund to $150 million thanks to its approach to investing in sports technologies with the help of its community of athlete supporters who they help promote and grow portfolio companies.
Will Ventures was started in 2019 by former professional football player Isaiah Kacyvenski and Brian Reilly, who has a product management background. They have known each other for more than a decade, having previously worked together at the start of the then MC10 wearable technology. The company went on to raise over $100 million and grow to over 80 employees.
“We got to see firsthand what it was like to become entrepreneurs,” Reilly told TechCrunch. “During that time, we were working primarily in the consumer health or health and wellness verticals, in digital health and consumer technology, launching these wearables that were used for elite athletes and also chronic patients”.
Two years ago, they started the sports technology research and consulting company Sports Division Lab, which Reilly said helped build their experience across all verticals and in sports media and entertainment.
In 2020, Will Ventures closed its Fund I with $55 million that was supported by university endowments, professional sports team owners and entrepreneurs.
Now armed with $150 million for Fund II, the firm will continue to invest in stage companies in the consumer, health, sports and entertainment sectors. Limited partners for this fund also include foundations, dozens of professional athletes and founders of venture capital and private equity firms.
“The increase in the size of the fund was to capitalize on all the opportunities that we saw in the market, and for us to be able to get more ownership in the companies that we really care about,” said Reilly.
Will Ventures practices the low-volume, high-conviction investment model, he noted. Rather than investing in 50 to 100 companies “for fun,” the firm is “slowly and intentionally” building a portfolio of 20 to 25 companies so it can “maintain a disciplined, patient, research-driven approach.”
There are also some new additions to Will Ventures, including a partnership with OneTeam Partners, which manages marketing and licensing rights for more than 4,000 professional athletes. Ben Gardner also joined the firm as a partner and head of portfolio success. A former professional football player, he comes from Andreessen Horowitz, where he was a partner in the market team.
So far, the firm has made investments from the second fund in companies such as Ness, which they describe as “AmEx for health and well-being; Mighty Health, a health and well-being platform for the elderly population; The Post, a professional club for current and former athletes; and Street FC, a marketplace for pickup sports.
“We did what we said we were going to do with the first fund and put the right processes in place for reliable and reproducible results,” Kacyvenski told TechCrunch. “We have incredible relationships with athletes, with unions in the league, with team owners and with talent agencies. This is a piece of our flyer that will continue to help with our differentiated value.”
