NBA star Glen Davis and Titan’s linebacker Derrick Morgan made their venture capital debut on Monday, pouring $2 million in seed funding into robotic bartender Monsieur.
Davis and Morgan are the latest professional athletes to take an interest in tech, joining a growing coalition of sports stars looking to try their hand at venture capital.
Last quarter saw the highest number of athlete-backed venture rounds, with investments recorded by Yankees veteran Mark Teixeira, football legend Joe Montana, and all-star Carmelo Anthony’s Melo7Tech Partners.
In part due to Steve Nash’s Consigliere Brand Capital and Anthony’s Melo7Tech, basketball players currently make the most active venture investors, recording the highest total number of rounds by sport.
Basketball stars have gotten in on 13 venture rounds in 2014, backing everything from flowers to mattresses.
Football ranks in second, with QBs Peyton and Eli Manning, Joe Montana, and Drew Brees taking the field alongside safety Adrian Wilson and linebacker Derrick Morgan to participate in 7 rounds this year.
While the success of most of these investments (and the impact of athlete endorsement) has yet to be determined, Carmelo Anthony has high hopes for a solid return. With his firm’s recent investment in Lyft, currently valued at $700 million, Anthony may become the first professional athlete to also back a unicorn.
Check out CrunchBase Graph Insights and the CrunchBase Investor Leaderboard to discover some of your own connections.
Photo via Flickr user Nate Bolt.
