Fanatics Trading Cards, a subsidiary of US-based digital sports memorabilia retailer Fanatics, has closed a $350m series A round featuring talent agency Endeavor, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Private equity firm Silver Lake and growth equity firm Insight Partners also participated in the round, which valued the company at $10.4bn, sources privy to the matter told WSJ.
Fanatics Trading Cards provides a direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketplace that helps rightsholders and fans sell, resell or buy cards affiliated with professional sports leagues including Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and the National Football League.
The company’s partner leagues, players and unions are offered equity stakes, which currently represent about 14% of its shares altogether, while Fanatics itself owns over 80%.
Fanatics chairman Michael Rubin told CNBC: “The trading card companies are good manufacturers, but they did not have a vision for building much more of a D2C model and then bringing all the pieces together to create a great collector’s experience.
“It is what we did in the merchandising category with our Fanatics commerce business – and now doing it with trading cards.”
Fanatics itself raised $325m in August this year from investors including telecommunications and internet conglomerate SoftBank at an $18bn valuation.
