Sports apparel behemoth Fanatics Inc. is looking to broaden its reach even further. Earlier this month, Fanatics announced a larger digital arm thatcould include everything from non-fungible tokens to online sports betting.
The larger scope for Fanatics comes amid a $325 million funding round, with investors including SoftBank, Major League Baseball, Silver Lake and rapper Jay-Z backing the company.
Executive chairman Michael Rubin, who sold Fanatic’s previous parent company GSI Commerce to eBay before buying back the sports powerhouse, is taking over as CEO of the larger Fanatics organization. Current CEO Doug Mack will maintain the CEO role for the commerce part of the business. That commerce arm generates billions in annual web sales, making Fanatics the No. 36 largest online retailer in North America, according to the 2021 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000. Rubin is also the CEO of Fanatics parent Kynetic LLC, which owns Rue Gilt Groupe (No. 61).
Fanatics runs the ecommerce sites for dozens of team stores and sports leagues like the MLB, NHL and NBA. It’s also the only provider of branded sports apparel for Walmart Inc. (No. 2).
The new, larger Fanatics will put its knowledge of sports (and fans) to use, expanding beyond ecommerce into other digital realms. Matt King, previously the CEO of sports betting company FanDuel, is joining the executive team in an unspecified role that will have him spinning up large-scale digital offerings including getting into the video game space and digital media opportunities.
In other hiring news:
- Payment technology provider Rokt announced Laura Mineo as the new chief financial officer today. Mineo most recently served as deputy chief financial officer at Rokt, spending 18 months working alongside outgoing chief financial officer Michael Gordon. Previously, Mineo was an executive director at Goldman Sachs. Rokt has several Top 1000 clients, including Staples Inc. (No. 9) and Lands’ End (No. 68). Rokt provides post-checkout personalization, such as marketing complementary products to shoppers who just made a purchase.
In funding news:
- Bazaar Technologies Pvt., an ecommerce startup from Pakistan, raised $30 million from investors in one of the nation’s largest fundraisings by an early stage tech company, its founders said. The company, which operates an online marketplace for grocery stores, mainly facilitates business-to-business sales. Bazaar says it aims to help mom-and-pop stores buy supplies from one marketplace instead of meeting 100 suppliers a week or physically browsing different markets, co-founder Hamza Jawaid said. Bazaar also launched a digital ledger product about three months ago to record orders and is testing a buy-now-pay-later offering, the founders said. Its app also offers and business cards, part of an effort to become the go-to place for traditional retailers. The new funding will be used to expand to new locations in Pakistan.
- Berlin-based startup SellerX has raised 100 million euros ($117 million) in funding, led by LVMH-backed investment firm L Catterton, to buy brands sold via Amazon.com Inc. and Shopify Inc. Founded in 2020, SellerX has so far bought more than 30 ecommerce brands that mainly sell their wares through the world’s largest ecommerce sites. SellerX plans to use the new cash to double its acquisitions over the coming year, co-founder Philipp Triebel said in an interview. LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton and Sephora, is No. 3 in the Di gital Commerce 360 Europe 500.
- Beauty brand Il Makiage (No. 405) acquired computer vision startup Voyage81 this month. The startup takes standard smartphone camera images and analyzes them to detect everything from hair type to facial blood flows. The tech allows Il Makiage to better match customers with the right products. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. L Catterton also backs Il Makiage.