Telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank and its $93bn Vision Fund are set to invest $1bn in US-based online sports e-commerce platform Fanatics, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
The “bulk” of the funding will come from Vision Fund and the deal will value Fanatics at $4.5bn according to Reuters, which cited sources familiar with the matter.
Fanatics operates an online platform that sells merchandise and apparel on behalf of sports teams. It is the official merchandise partner of the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball (MLB) and Nascar.
The company was originally founded in 1995 and acquired by e-commerce services group GSI Commerce in 2011. After e-commerce firm eBay bought GSI for $2bn the following year, GSI founder Michael Rubin bought back Fanatics along with two other properties.
In addition to being partners, several sporting leagues are also investors in Fanatics. NFL paid $95m for a 3% stake in Fanatics in May this year, valuing the company at about $3.17bn according to Sports Business Journal, while MLB reportedly invested $50m and labour organisation NFL Players Association $5m.
The 2017 investments follow $620m of funding raised by Fanatics since 2012, including $170m from e-commerce group Alibaba and Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek in a 2013 deal that valued it at $3.1bn post-money.
Venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Insight Venture Partners had provided $150m in equity financing for the company in 2012 alongside a $75m line of credit that was led by Bank of America. Private equity firm Silver Lake invested another $300m in 2015.