Collaborative Fund, a 15-year-old New York-based venture firm with roughly $1 billion under management, is taking a stake in D.C. United and its stadium, Audi Field. The firm, known for early bets on Lyft, Reddit, Sweetgreen, and Olipop, is the latest venture capital player to enter professional sports ownership, following a path first blazed by Thrive Capital just months ago.
Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital opened the door to this new approach when it launched Thrive Eternal, a vehicle specifically built to hold iconic franchises and cultural institutions for decades. The firm announced a stake in the San Francisco Giants before making an even bigger splash by buying the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5 billion, with former Disney CEO Bob Iger joining as co-owner. This marked a departure from how tech money has traditionally entered professional sports.
Historically, venture capital has stayed on the sidelines while individual tech fortunes and private equity dominated sports ownership. Vinod Khosla exemplifies the individual wealth approach, agreeing to buy the Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 billion during summer 2026 while his family also took a stake in the San Francisco 49ers alongside OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor. Private equity firms have been active in this space for years, with Sixth Street holding stakes in the Boston Celtics, New England Patriots, and San Francisco Giants. Ares owns a piece of the Miami Dolphins and financed Chelsea’s stadium with $500 million, while RedBird owns AC Milan and holds a minority stake in Fenway Sports Group, the holding company behind Liverpool and the Boston Red Sox. Arctos has scattered minority positions across Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, and European soccer.
What sets Collaborative Fund apart from both traditional approaches and even from Thrive is its strategy. Unlike Thrive’s standalone permanent-capital vehicle designed to hold trophy assets, Collaborative is investing out of the same early-stage fund it uses for seed and Series A checks. The firm’s founder and managing partner Craig Shapiro described a franchise as “the ultimate consumer product” in a memo, treating the deal less as a buy-and-hold investment and more as infrastructure for the firm’s portfolio companies.
D.C. United, one of Major League Soccer’s original clubs, offers Collaborative access to a decades-long fan base and ownership of Audi Field in Washington, D.C. The firm plans to use the stadium as a showcase for its portfolio companies. As a backer of fitness band maker Whoop and beverage brand Olipop, Collaborative envisions wearables activations for fans and portfolio products woven into game-day concessions. Shapiro sees the stadium’s foot traffic as a distribution channel at a time when live experiences are becoming more valuable.
The investment thesis also benefits from soaring team valuations in soccer. Inter Miami’s franchise value roughly doubled since Lionel Messi arrived, and MLS average club values are up roughly 134% since 2019. D.C. United’s own valuation has climbed from $35 million in 2008 to $785 million today, factoring in its ownership of Audi Field and surrounding real estate. The deal is subject to MLS approval.
