# Top 50 Sporting Goods Startup Investors in United States in June 2026

## Jumpstart New Jersey Angel Network
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
- Relevant deals: 4
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Software, Health Care, Information Technology

Jumpstart is a private, member-lead, angel group that invests in early-stage technology companies in the Mid-Atlantic region. As the leading angel group in New Jersey, Jumpstart members include many successful entrepreneurs, business executives and venture capitalists in the region.

## Listen
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Relevant deals: 4
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: E-Commerce, Software, Retail

LISTEN.co / Chicago

## KB Partners
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Highland Park, Illinois, United States
- Relevant deals: 4
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Sports, Software, Information Technology

We invest in passionate innovators at the intersection of sports and technology.

## Bread and Butter Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Health Care, SaaS

Bread and Butter Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Minnesota, the Bread and Butter State, investing globally while leveraging our state and region’s unparalleled access to strong corporate connections, commercial opportunities, and industry expertise for the benefit of our teams. Led by Brett Brohl and Mary Grove, we investin founders at the seed stage across foodtech, digital health and enterprise saas.

## Guild Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Miami, Florida, United States
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: E-Commerce, Internet, Software

Founded in 2009 by Iain Shovlin, Guild typically backs founders as their first institutional investor, actively partnering with them to assist in crafting growth strategies, architecting high-performance teams, creating distinctive brands, and embracing metric-driven management. The company is headquartered in Miami Beach and invests in Chicago,Los Angeles and New York in the US, and in Mumbai and Pune in India.

## Gopher Angels
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Biotechnology, Software, Health Care

We are the most active Minnesota investor network, supporting the Midwest startup community through angel investment, a shared knowledge bank.

## Founder Collective
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Internet, E-Commerce

Each Founder Collective partner has founded and sold a technology company. The company we wish had existed when we first started out is what we hope to create with Founder Collective. We offer a user guide for managing the risky commodity known as venture capital. The company believes that in order to advance their firms and maintain control,entrepreneurs should aim to raise the least amount of money possible.Founder Collective was established on May 22, 2009 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

## Daren Cotter
- Type: Angel
- Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Health Care, E-Commerce

Daren was the Founder and CEO of InboxDollars, an online marketing company that connects consumers and advertisers in a way that benefits both. He founded the company as a Freshman in college in 2000 and bootstrapped the company to more than $25 million in annual revenues. InboxDollars was acquired by Prodege in 2019. Daren is active in the MNstart-up community as an investor, advisor and mentor.

## RiverPark Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, E-Commerce, SaaS

RiverPark Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund, founded by entrepreneurs to invest in entrepreneurs. RiverPark Ventures is part of the RiverPark family of funds, a multi-strategy portfolio management firm. RiverPark Funds collectively manage over $3 billion in assets.

## The R-Group
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Portland, Oregon, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, SaaS, E-Commerce

The R-Group focuses on angel investments and venture capital in sectors such as FinTech, HighTech, MedTech, EdTech, Lifestyle, and CPG. The company maintains a diverse portfolio that includes numerous innovative startups and established companies. The R-Group is committed to supporting growth and development within these industries throughstrategic investments.

## Dundee Venture Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Omaha, Nebraska, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, E-Commerce, SaaS

Dundee Venture Capital invests $250,000-$1M in high-growth, early-stage technology companies. DVC invests across industries in founding teams they believe in. Most of DVC's investments are in e-commerce, B2B SaaS, or consumer networks.Dundee VC formally began in 2010. The root of the idea started much earlier when Mark Hasebroock, DundeeVC’s founding, and managing partner, was raising money for his two e-commerce companies, giftcertificates.com and Hayneedle.com, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, respectively.

## Maria Thomas
- Type: Angel
- Location: Washington, District of Columbia, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series B, Series A
- Focus: E-Commerce, SaaS, Retail

Maria Thomas is a consumer Internet pioneer and entrepreneurial business builder.  She is also a well-respected member of the Board of Directors of both a publicly traded and a private equity backed company.  She's currently (2017) an expert advisor and hands-on contributor to Remote Year.In 2016, Maria was Interim CEO at Glamsquad:http://blog.glamsquad.com/post/145956909567/corepower-yoga-amy-shecter-glamsquad-ceo. Maria is the former CEO of Etsy, a position she took in July of 2008 after Founding CEO Maria Prior to 

## Alumni Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Manchester, New Hampshire, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technology

Access curated startup investment opportunities and diversified venture capital exposure designed for accredited investors.

## Teamworthy Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Series B, Seed
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, SaaS

At Teamworthy Ventures, we seek to develop long-term relationships with talented and trustworthy entrepreneurs and teams, and we invest in their ventures at the seed, early, or growth stage. A sample of our investments: SeatGeek, Ibotta, Boxed, and more. Our partners are Thomas Lehrman, Evan Kaye, a

## FJ Labs
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, E-Commerce, Financial Services

FJ Labs is a stage-agnostic investment firm that focuses on marketplaces and consumer facing startups.

## John Elstrott
- Type: Angel
- Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Apps, Sports, Consumer

John Elstrott is the Mentor, The LePage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation In-Residence Program Mentor at Tulane University School of Medicine. He attended the University of Colorado Boulder.

## Blake Griffin
- Type: Angel
- Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Retail, Sports, Consumer Goods

Blake Griffin, the six-time All-Star, former Rookie of the Year and Slam Dunk Champion, is regarded as one of the most influential players in recent history. Second only to his basketball talent is his innate knack for comedic timing, which has been showcased in numerous national ad campaigns, top-tier media, and through his annual charity comedyshow, Comedy.by blake. Behind the camera, Blake serves as the Cofounder of Mortal Media, his Hollywood production company, which works on projects in the film, TV, and digital spaces. A true triple-threat, adding to athlete and actor, Blake and his brother Taylor also run the Team Griffin Foundation, their non-profit organization that provides young men and women with opportunities to learn the essential lessons of life, competition, and hard work by inspiring them to nurture their passions in athletics, academics and the arts.

## Wavemaker Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Singapore, Central Region, Singapore
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, E-Commerce, Information Technology

Wavemaker Group is a cross-border venture capital firm founded in 2003 and one of the most active early-stage investors across multiple funds.

## Global Founders Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Financial Services, Software, FinTech

Over the past two decades, GFC have backed over five hundred entrepreneurs worldwide, e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, and Away Travel.

## Matthew Ocko
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Mobile

Matthew Ocko has nearly three decades of experience as a technology entrepreneur, operating executive and venture capitalist, with over 20 patents granted or pending in areas as diverse as hardware systems and social games. He still reads C++ code but admits to occasional struggles with Erlang. Matthew is a co-founder & co-managing partner ofData Collective, a venture fund with a unique team of experienced venture capitalists, technology entrepreneurs and practicing engineers, investing together in seed and early stage Big Data and IT infrastructure companies. During his venture capital tenure, he has invested in and/or helped grow a variety of companies including XenSource (CTRX), Zynga (ZNGA), Impermium, Verisign (VRSN), Facebook (FB), Virtuata (CSCO), Akimbi Systems (VMW), Cotendo (AKAM), Tango.me, MetaWeb (GOOG), FlashSoft (SNDK), DataMirror (IBM), UltraDNS (NSR), Kenshoo, Metamarkets, Fortinet (FTNT), SupportSoft (SPRT), Alantro (TXN), CouchBase, Spool (FB), BranchOut, On-Ramp Wireless, and many others.

## Keiretsu Forum Northwest
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Seattle, Washington, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Seed
- Focus: Health Care, Software, Biotechnology

Keiretsu Forum is a community of private equity investors, business leaders and entrepreneurs with a network of over 50 global chapters and more than 2,500 investor members.

## Sharp Alpha
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Gaming, Sports, Fantasy Sports

Sharp Alpha Advisors is a venture capital firm specializing in sports betting and online gaming

## David Blitzer
- Type: Angel
- Location: Scotch Plains, New Jersey, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A
- Focus: Sports, Fantasy Sports, Sporting Goods

David Blitzer joined HBSE Ventures as Founder.

## Keiretsu Forum
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Health Care, Software, Biotechnology

Keiretsu Forum is a global angel investor network with more than 2,500 accredited investor members throughout 47 chapters on 3 continents.

## Lloyd Danzig
- Type: Angel
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Gaming, Sports, Mobile Apps

Lloyd Danzig is the Founder and Managing Partner of Sharp Alpha Advisors.

## David J. Adelman
- Type: Angel
- Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Seed
- Focus: Food and Beverage, Sports, E-Commerce

As the CEO of Campus Apartments, David Adelman leverages more than three decades of experience in real estate investing and development to oversee a portfolio of student housing properties at 80 schools in 23 states. He was mentored from an early age by the founder of Campus Apartments and has played a major role in the company’s growth sincetaking over as CEO. Specifically, David Adelman fostered a relationship with sovereign wealth fund GIC Real Estate of Singapore to invest in the company in 2006.  Mr. Adelman is also the founder of Darco Capital and co-founder and vice chair of FS Investments. Through Darco, he has invested in dozens of venture capital and private equity businesses, including digital healthcare company Virta, tequila brand Lobos 1707, Fleetzero electric ships, Prolific Machines cultured meat, Crystal Palace football club, and athletic apparel maker Fanatics. FS Investments is a prominent manager of alternative investment funds with more than $38 billion in assets under management. A basketball fan, David Adelman leveraged his success in real estate and business investing in October 2022 to purchase a $250 million equity stake in Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, the firm that owns the Philadelphia 76ers NBA franchise. Mr. Adelman is also the chairman of 76 Devcorp, through which he is leading efforts to build a new sports and entertainment venue for the team and revitalize the Fashion District mall at Tenth and Market Streets in Center City. David Adelman is a former Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the real estate category for Greater Philadelphia. He currently belongs to the Young Presidents' Organization and Real Estate Roundtable and serves on the University City District Board of Directors and Penn Medicine Board of Trustees. In addition, he is a past chairman of the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation. He holds a bachelor of arts in political science from Ohio State University. Away from work, he enjoys spending his free time with his wife and daughters.

## Keiretsu Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Seattle, Washington, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Seed
- Focus: Health Care, Biotechnology, Medical

Keiretsu Capital LLC is an affiliate of the World's Leading Angel Network, Keiretsu Forum, and manages funds which enable limited partners to co-invest in the proprietary deal flow of the angel investors.

## Christopher J. Dean
- Type: Angel
- Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B
- Focus: Software, Service Industry, Retail

Christopher J. Dean joined Summit Partners in 2001. Prior to Summit, he worked for Morgan Stanley, J.H. Whitney & Co. and Sun Microsystems. Based in Summit’s Boston office, Chris is active in the firm’s investment activities in North America, Europe and Asia.During his 12 years with Summit Partners, Chris has served as a director ofmany companies. He is currently a director of Aurora Diagnostics, Champion Windows, Commercial Defeasance, Focus Financial Partners and Salient Partners. His prior directorships include optionsXpress Holdings (NASDAQ: OXPS, later acquired by Charles Schwab), PSC Info Group (acquired by Roark Capital Group) and Senior Home Care (acquired by Oaktree Capital Management).Chris holds a BA in history, summa cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

## Alliance of Angels
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Seattle, Washington, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Health Care, Mobile

Largest and most active angel group in the Pacific Northwest

## GAN Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Denver, Colorado, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Angel
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Health Care

GAN Ventures is the investment arm of the Global Accelerator Network

## Gary Vaynerchuk
- Type: Angel
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Mobile, Internet

Gary Vaynerchuk is the Chairman of VaynerX. He previously worked at Resy as a Co-Founder. Gary Vaynerchuk attended Mount Ida College.

## Mark Pincus
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Internet, FinTech, Software

Mark Pincus is based out of San Francisco, California and is the Founder of Playful.AI. Mark previously worked at Tribe.net as a CEO and Co-Founder. Mark Pincus attended 
Harvard Business School.

## Seed Round Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Houston, Texas, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Health Care, Artificial Intelligence

An early-stage venture capital investment and advisory firm investing in pre-seed and seed-stage startups. Based in Houston, Texas.

## Roger Ehrenberg
- Type: Angel
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: FinTech, Advertising, Software

Roger Ehrenberg is the founder and Managing Partner of IA Ventures, a firm that invests in companies creating competitive advantage through data.

## Frank Bober
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Hardware, Mobile Apps, Sporting Goods

Frank Bober founded Stylesight in 2003 in response to the growing industry demand for a faster and more effective Web-based approach to the process of product inspiration and development.Stylesight is the continuation of a career that spans every aspect of the fashion industry including design, manufacturing, trend forecasting, productdevelopment and merchandising.Frank’s career began in the 1960s as a menswear designer with an eponymous collection. He later held senior executive positions at Arthur Richards and Polo Ralph Lauren before founding CMT Enterprises in 1979. At CMT, he pioneered the private label concept by both designing and producing private label men’s and women’s apparel for many of America’s top retailers. He sold CMT Enterprises in 2000 after 21 successful years.

## Break Trail Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Boulder, Colorado, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Fashion, Health Care, SaaS

Break Trail Ventures is an early stage venture fund based in Columbus, OH and Boulder, CO.

## Verance Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Series A, Series B
- Focus: Sports, Media and Entertainment, Analytics

Verance Capital partners with leading entrepreneurs and management teams, providing early and growth stage capital across sports, media and live entertainment.

## NAI Elliott
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Portland, Oregon, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Post-IPO Equity
- Focus: Retail, Electronics, Health Care

NAI Elliott has four decades of experience in commercial real estate, thriving and growing in our roles as advisors, brokers and managers. 

## Great North Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, Internet

Venture capital fund and venture studio. We invest in startups using breakthrough technologies to innovate industries dominated by analog processes.

## Nicholas Horbaczewski
- Type: Angel
- Location: New York, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: B2B, Sports, Internet

Nicholas Horbaczewski is the founder and CEO at The Drone League Racing and also the founder of Leeden Media. He is the previous senior vice president revenue and business development
at Tough Mudder Inc.
Nicholas ha a MBA at Harvard Business School and a bachelor's degree in history and literature at Harvard University.

## Susquehanna Growth Equity
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Private Equity, Series B, Series A
- Focus: Software, Information Technology, SaaS

Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE) is unlike the typical investment model: our firm is backed solely by bootstrapped entrepreneurs. This enables us to invest on.

## Shaun White
- Type: Angel
- Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: E-Commerce, Hospitality, Retail

Born in San Diego, California in 1986, Shaun Roger White endured two major surgeries to correct a heart defect before he was 1 years old. Despite this challenging start Shaun proved he was far from frail, charging into sports like surfing, soccer and snowboarding at a young age. Shaun grew up in a family of five and one of the family'sfavorite pastimes included skiing. At the age of 4, Shaun proved to be fearless on his skis racing down the slopes with older brother Jesse. In an attempt to slow down Shaun when he was 6, his mom decided to put him on a snowboard and instructed him to copy everything Jesse did. Unfortunately for her, it only encouraged Shaun to go faster.While Shaun was being lauded as a snowboard prodigy, in the summertime he was simultaneously turning heads on the skateboard scene. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk befriended the 9-year-old at a skate park and mentored the up-and-comer, encouraging Shaun and helping him turn pro at the age of 17. Participating in both sports was far from usual, but for Shaun this duality helped excel his progression.

## General Catalyst
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Seed, Series B
- Focus: Software, Health Care, Artificial Intelligence

Investing in powerful, positive change that endures

## NewBound Venture Capital
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Seed
- Focus: Sports, E-Commerce, Media and Entertainment

NewBound VC is an early stage venture capital firm partnering with entrepreneurs who challenge what's "possible".

## Brick Capital Ventures
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: West Palm Beach, Florida, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- Focus: Software, Advertising, Apps

HELPING GREAT LEADERS LEAD GREAT COMPANIES

## Right Side Capital Management
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Convertible Note
- Focus: Software, SaaS, Health Care

Right Side Capital Management is a venture capital firm that helps startups build their company. It invests exclusively in the pre-seed round of technology startups and makes 75-100 investment per year. The firms prefers to invest in diversified technology sectors such as the internet and cloud companies.RSCM was established in 2010 and is basedin San Francisco, California.

## LBO Enterprises
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Flushing, New York, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Series D
- Focus: Sports, Shopping, Marketing

LBO Capital is a venture capital firm based in Flushing, New York.

## Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: College Park, Maryland, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Software, SaaS, Information Technology

The Dingman Center Angels is a Maryland based angel investment group that provides funding to early-stage companies.

## Sugar Mountain
- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Seattle, Washington, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Series B
- Focus: E-Commerce, SaaS, Coffee

We are a team at the forefront of the food revolution, passionate about our mission to Change the Way America Eats.

## Madison Valley Partners
- Type: VC Fund
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A, Series B
- Focus: Information Technology, GPS, Mobile

Madison Valley Partners is a investment firm.

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