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The Venture Codex

NFL Players Association

1133 20th St NW, Washington, DC, 20036, United States

Overview

The National Football League Players Association is the union for professional football players in the National Football League. Established in 1956, the NFLPA has a long history of assuring proper recognition and representation of players’ interests. The NFLPA has shown that it will do whatever is necessary to assure that the rights of players are protected—including ceasing to be a union, if necessary, as it did in 1989. In 1993, the NFLPA again was officially recognized as the union representing the players and negotiated a landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NFL. The current CBA will govern the sport through 2020.

Total investments
6
Lead investments
0
Investments · 12mo
1
Active investors
13

Sector focus

  • American Football
  • Association
  • Sports
Visit website

Investment portfolio

  • Cloaked

    Participated · Series B · Mar 2026

    Founded in 2020, Cloaked provides a bundle of consumer privacy and security products such as multiple digital identities (emails, phone numbers, passwords), data removal services, identity theft insurance, VPN, and dark web monitoring. It has added AI-powered call screening and is expanding that screening to text messages, email, and browsing, while testing an AI agent that can take actions like changing compromised passwords. The company reported 10x growth last year, more than 350,000 paying customers, protection of over 10 million identities, cleanup of more than 1 billion records from data broker sites, and processing over 50 million scam or spam phone calls since launching call screening. Cloaked is beginning to roll out enterprise offerings that provide employees alerts, and give CISOs aggregated risk and remediation visibility. The startup has nearly 70 employees and intends to expand hiring across product, engineering, enterprise sales, and international markets, and competes with companies including 1Password, Gaurdio, Firefox, Proton, and Mozilla.

  • Miach Orthopaedics

    Participated · Series B · Apr 2024

    Miach Orthopaedics develops the Bridge-Enhanced ACL Restoration (BEAR®) Implant, a bio‑engineered product that facilitates healing of torn anterior cruciate ligaments rather than replacing them. The BEAR Implant acts as a bridge between ACL ends, uses a small amount of the patient’s blood to promote healing, and is resorbed as the ligament repairs. It received De Novo FDA approval in December 2020 and is indicated for skeletally mature patients (14+) with a complete ACL rupture and an ACL stump attached to the tibia. The company reports the BEAR Implant has been used to treat nearly 3,000 patients. Miach says the technology is a paradigm shift from ACL reconstruction because it avoids graft harvest or donor tendons and preserves the ACL’s native attachments. Current priorities include U.S. commercial expansion and clinical initiatives such as the Bridge Registry to gather real‑world outcomes. The company is privately held and located in Westborough, Massachusetts. Miach Orthopaedics is a privately held company in Westborough, Massachusetts, focused on bio-engineered surgical implants for connective tissue restoration, initially commercializing the BEAR Implant for ACL repair. The BEAR Implant is a bridge-enhanced, bio‑engineered device that, when combined with a small amount of the patient’s blood, facilitates healing of a torn ACL and is resorbed as the ligament heals. The device received De Novo FDA approval in December 2020 and is the first medical technology with Level 1 clinical evidence showing it enables the body to heal a torn ACL. Commercial launch began in fall 2021; more than 500 patients have been treated with the BEAR Implant commercially. The company says the BEAR procedure avoids harvesting or using donor tendon grafts and preserves the ACL’s original attachments. The recent financing will fund ongoing operations and expand the U.S. commercial rollout to bring ACL restoration to more patients. MIACH Orthopaedics is focused on the Bridge-Enhanced® ACL Repair (BEAR®), a proprietary bio-engineered sponge used as a bridging scaffold to stimulate healing of torn anterior cruciate ligaments. The BEAR technology has been tested in nearly 100 human patients under an FDA Investigational Device Exemption (IDE). Preclinical studies and the company’s clinical work suggest the BEAR procedure avoids graft harvest and may lower long-term arthritis risk versus conventional ACL reconstruction. MIACH plans to use new funding to accelerate manufacturing capabilities and continue U.S. clinical trials of BEAR. The company has received initial research funding from the NFL Players Association, Boston Children’s Hospital and the National Institutes of Health. MIACH is a privately held company located in Boston, Massachusetts.

  • Fanatics

    Participated · Equity · Apr 2022

    Fanatics began as an e-commerce seller of sports gear and has expanded into a broad sports platform that includes apparel, collectibles, betting and gaming. The company has amassed a database of more than 94 million fans. This year it acquired Topps for $500 million and, in partnership with LeBron James and Kevin Durant, bought Mitchell & Ness. Fanatics signed a long-term deal with Nike to manufacture college sports fan apparel and recently signed Japan’s Tokyo Giants. The company is preparing to launch sports betting in 2023 and projects that betting plus other segments could yield up to $8 billion in annual profit over the next decade. Fanatics estimates revenue, including its Lids segment, will be approximately $8 billion in 2023 and is weighing an initial public offering. Fanatics operates a large sports commerce business selling licensed apparel and fan gear directly to customers for leagues, teams and players. While commerce remains its biggest revenue source, the company has expanded into Collectibles (including its acquisition of Topps), an NFT arm through majority ownership of Candy Digital, and a fledgling betting and gaming division. Fanatics says it is positioning itself as a “global digital sports platform” and describes itself as a tech company. The firm projects $5 billion in revenue this year, up from $2.2 billion in 2017. The company has raised a total of $4.2 billion in funding, according to Crunchbase. Leagues, players’ associations and team owners are now strategic stakeholders as Fanatics broadens beyond its legacy merchandising business. Fanatics separated its trading-card business from its merchandise operations in August and has secured licensing rights that cover MLB, the NFL and the NBA. One month after capturing those league licenses it raised a $350 million funding round that values the trading-card unit at more than $10 billion. Management has recruited executives such as former IAC CFO Glenn Schiffman and launched related initiatives like NFT company Candy Digital to position the business as a technology-enabled collector platform. Fanatics plans to integrate services for collectors — insurance, grading, storage and a marketplace — and to collect transaction fees across those offerings. The company has indicated it may acquire an existing card maker (Upper Deck is cited as a likely target) rather than build manufacturing from scratch. Critics note the licensing rights do not transfer for a few years and some observers call the agreements akin to futures contracts; traditional card manufacturers together are expected to generate close to $1 billion of EBITDA this year, a benchmark cited in valuation discussion. Fanatics operates as a sports-focused e-commerce retailer, selling licensed apparel and merchandise for major leagues, clubs and athletes and also running some physical retail locations. The company has commercial partnerships with the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, NASCAR, European soccer clubs and more than 300 individual teams, and recently signed a multi-year online merchandising deal with athlete Marshawn Lynch. Fanatics reported $2.5 billion in revenue in 2019, and its sales were up slightly in the first half of 2020 as roughly 30% e-commerce growth offset losses from its brick-and-mortar stores during the sports shutdown. Management plans to use new capital to accelerate rights acquisition and pursue further M&A activity. The company is majority controlled by executive chairman Michael Rubin through his holding company Kynetic, which owns nearly half of Fanatics. Fanatics is expected to make an initial public offering its next capitalization step, though no timetable has been announced. Fanatics is a Jacksonville, Fla.-based sports e-commerce company that helps leagues and teams sell licensed apparel and fan gear directly to customers. It sells and sometimes manufactures team jerseys and other products and in April acquired Majestic sportswear, which has made Major League Baseball on-field uniforms. The company is headed by CEO Doug Mack, who joined three years ago, and executive chairman Michael Rubin remains an active entrepreneur. Rubin's e-commerce holding company Kynetic holds stakes in former GSI subsidiaries including Rue La La, ShopRunner and Fanatics. Fanatics says it expects to generate $2.2 billion in revenue this year. The company has focused on selling primarily through its own site and has taken actions against unauthorized sellers on platforms such as Amazon.

  • WHOOP

    Participated · Series C · Mar 2018

    Whoop builds wearable fitness and health trackers paired with a subscription service that captures user biometric and performance data. The company ships millions of hardware units globally while operating a recurring-revenue subscription model, which management says makes bookings the most useful operating metric. Whoop exited last year at a $1.1 billion bookings run rate, representing 103% year-over-year growth. It has now raised roughly $900 million in total capital since founding. The company is investing raised capital in hiring and talent, marketing and brand awareness, continued R&D, and accelerating international expansion. Whoop is also pursuing deeper health and medical capabilities, underscored by strategic participation from Abbott and Mayo Clinic in the latest round.

Team

  • Creighton Miller

    Co-founder

  • Abe Gibron

    Co-founder

  • Dante Lavelli

    Co-founder

  • J. C. Tretter

    Founder & President