Aniket PujariBillionaire-backed investment firm Monarch Collective has expanded the size of its fund in light of the continued surge in popularity of women’s sports.
The fund, which launched in 2023 is expanding from $150 million to $250 million, with most of the additional capital coming from existing investors, which include Melina French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, Hello Sunshine CEO Sarah Harden, and former Netflix executive Cindy Holland and partner Annie Imhoff.
New investors have come on board, too, the firm said in an announcement Thursday, including Beth Brooke, Ernst & Young’s former global vice chairman of public policy, and Elizabeth Yee, executive vice president of programs at The Rockefeller Foundation.
“We’ll be the largest fund in women’s sports,” said Kara Nortman, Monarch co-founder and managing partner. “You hear a lot of noise about people starting it now, but we’ve been at it for awhile.”
Monarch Collective formed to invest exclusively in women’s sports, particularly in leagues, teams and media rights.
Prior to Monarch, Nortman worked at a venture capital firm and was previously co-head of the mergers and acquisitions group at IAC. She also co-founded the National Women’s Soccer League’s Angel City FC in 2020. She started the firm alongside Jasmine Robinson, who was most recently at Causeway, a growth stage investment fund focused on sports, media, gaming and fitness. She also held investment roles at various firms, as well as the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.
Monarch typically takes minority stakes with its investments, but works closely with the owners of teams, Nortman said.
“We’re doing day-to-day, hands-on work alongside the control owner in terms of hiring teams, designing practice facilities, being a sounding board when something goes right or something goes wrong, really thinking through what is the unique fan experience in this [team’s] market and how does it tie to the [team’s] mission,” said Nortman. “And the amount of capital we could put to work against that has gone up.”
So far, Monarch has invested in three NWSL teams — Angel City FC, BOS Nation and the San Diego Wave. Last year, Angel City sold a controlling stake to journalist Willow Bay and Disney CEO Bob Iger for an undisclosed sum that valued the team at $250 million. The firm said it was the highest valuation on record for a professional women’s sports team.
Monarch was founded on the cusp of what has become one of the biggest spikes in popularity for women’s sports in years, if ever. In particular, rookie stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese helped to lift the Women’s National Basketball Association to record ratings last season, and in general, the audience around women’s sports has gained ground and attracted more advertisers.
As a result, investors are keen to take part in the growth.
“There’s no denying that women’s sports is surging, and that we’re also pioneers and experts in this. So people kept coming to us, wanting to work with us to build out business plans or really look at things before they even become investable,” Nortman said.
Monarch plans to invest in both U.S. and international teams in the near term, according to Thursday’s release.
“We tend to focus on the most mature women’s sports — so the ones where we see a path for media revenue to go up and to the right very predictably,” Nortman said. “The core thesis is that we can build to break even, or close to it, with team level revenues.”
Media rights for the WNBA, for example, could see a price reevaluation after the 2028 season to account for its recent growth in popularity, CNBC reported last year. The WNBA media rights were negotiated as part of the larger $77 billion NBA agreement, which begins next season. The WNBA-specific contract is valued at $2.2 billion over 11 seasons.
