A year after Kevin Durant and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, invested in Just Women’s Sports, a site whose mission is self-explanatory, Joe and Clara Wu Tsai joined him via their family investment vehicle, Blue Pool Capital.
The announcement came in a press release Thursday.
Just Women’s Sports, the leading multimedia platform dedicated exclusively to women’s sports, announced today that it has raised $ 6 million from new and returning investors.
The funding round was led by Blue Pool Capital, the family office of Joe Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba.
As release notes, the Tsai are joining in what is the second round of investment from both high-profile athletes, past and present, as well as other sports and entertainment companies and individuals.
New investors include tennis icon Billie Jean King; Michele Kang, owner of Washington Spirit; Bolt Ventures, the family office of financier and team owner David Blitzer; SC Holdings, a strategic investor in the entertainment industry that supported The SpringHill Company and Front Office Sports; Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund; Muse Capital; Dapper Labs, the leading sports NFT platform; and other institutional and angel investors.
“The business case for women’s sports has never been clearer and Just Women’s Sports is positioned to be the leading media platform in space,” Tsai and his wife said in a statement. “We are thrilled to partner with them as they enter the next phase of growth.”
A year ago, in a $ 3.5 million investment round, Thirty-Five Ventures, the firm of KD and Kleiman, was among the major companies to enter early.
“Just Women’s Sports is creating a much needed platform focused on game and player highlights and analytics that shows fans exactly how good these players are and why they are worth watching,” Durant said at the time.
In that investment round he was joined by other high-profile athletes, big names like two-time WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne and reigning championship champion Arike Ogunbowale, female hockey icon Hilary Knight, as well as USWNT World Cup champion Kelley O ‘Hara and Sam Mewis.
Haley Rosen, who played football at Stanford, is the founder and CEO of the site. In Thursday’s announcement, she talked about how the Tsai investment would help the two-year site develop further.
“Two years ago, we saw a tremendous opportunity to tap into an audience extremely underserved by traditional media,” said Rosen. “We knew the product on the pitch was great and that women’s sports just needed better coverage and smarter marketing to truly enter the mainstream. This latest round of funding gives us the resources to solidify our status as a leading platform in space. “
Durant already had a connection with New York Liberty when he and Kleiman made their original investment in Just Women’s Sports. In addition to being a fan and sitting with the Tsais at the Liberty games, Thirty-Five Ventures has hired New York star guard Sabrina Ionescu as an “ambassador” for women’s sports. She works with Boardroom on content, events and editorials, including a collaboration with Durant.
Women’s sports, of course, is a growing business with both the WNBA and the National Women’s Soccer League seeing increasing interest and participation. Tsai bought control of Liberty in early 2019 from James Dolan and MSG Sports, reportedly for nothing more than a Liberty debt assumption and a deal to share the revenue once the team began building a profit.
Joe Tsai is also Steve Nash’s partner on his professional box lacrosse team, the Las Vegas Desert Dogs.