US-headquartered online sports memorabilia retailer Fanatics has received $325m in funding from investors including telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, Reuters reported yesterday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The round valued the company at $18bn and also featured private equity firm Silver Lake and Jay Z, the rapper and entrepreneur who founded entertainment agency Roc Nation.
Fanatics’ e-commerce platform sells official licensed products covering a range of sports including baseball, American football, basketball, ice hockey and Nascar racing, and has begun diversifying into areas such as sports-themed gaming, betting and media.
The latest round represents a 40% boost in valuation from March this year, when Fanatics raised $320m from sporting league manager Major League Baseball (MLB), investment and financial services group Fidelity, Silver Lake, Franklin Templeton, Neuberger Berman and Thrive Capital at a $12.8bn valuation.
Fidelity and Thrive Capital co-led the company’s $350m series E round in August 2020, investing alongside Franklin Templeton and Neuberger Berman at a reported $6.2bn valuation.
Fanatics had previously secured $1bn in a 2017 round led by telecommunications and internet group SoftBank and backed by MLB and National Football League (NFL), valuing it at $4.5bn and increasing its overall funding to approximately $1.62bn.
E-commerce group Alibaba had joined Temasek to provide $170m in funding for the company in 2014 at a $3.1bn valuation, two years after Insight Partners and Andreessen Horowitz had invested $150m.
