Leigh Steinberg, the legendary sports agent has teamed up with Alpha Strategies in venture capital investment. The veteran agent has raised $50 million for venture capital fund.
Steinberg is the most famous sports agent who has represented hundreds of athletes in National Football League, baseball, basketball, boxing, and Olympic sports. He was also the inspiration for the 1996's movie Jerry Maguirre, and also worked as technical consultant for some sports movies.
During his tenure as a sports agent, he spent more than 20 years to promote safety protocol in National Football League. Since 1980's Steinberg has been very vocal with the National Football League to address concussion issue. During that time, his clients, two famous quarterbacks Troy Aikman from Dallas Cowboys and Steve Young from 49ers had taken repeated bump in their head.
Following Steinberg advise, NFL created Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) committee in 1994., NFL appointed New York Jets team doctor and rheumatologist Dr. Elliot Pellman to lead the committee. From then on, safety of the athlete has become a serious concern in football.
Steinberg now partners with Alpha Strategies to form Steinberg Ventures, his venture capital arm. The venture capital will focus on investment in sports and entertainment technology including new tools to combat concussions. In an intereview with USA Today Steinberg said, "We have been absolutely inundated with offers to invest."
He also added that NFL took decades to address concussion seriously. Now with his new venture capital firm he said, "What's happened is that there is now a profit motive in the prevention and treatment of concussions."
In the partnership, two executives from Alpha Strategies, Andreas Saucedo and James Wynee will join Steinberg on the management team of Steinberg Ventures.
Silicon Beat quoted the mission of Steinberg Ventures as mentioned in the firm's website, "Sports-oriented financing deals continue to draw and capture the attention of investors." The firm also mentioned its target, "Our focus and goal is to return strong, long-term results for investors and provide new businesses with intimate support and assistance as they grow."
According to Sport Techie, Steinberg has become the latest in a line of sports powerhouses to get active in venture capital. Previously owners of Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team Dan Gilbert has launched a $35 million venture capital fund focusing on technology and media companies operating in the sports space. LA Dodgers and two NBA superstars Steve Nash and Carmelo Anthony has also made a peek into the venture capital business.
Legendary sports agent, Leigh Steinberg partnered Alpha Strategies in creating Steinberg Ventures as his venture capital arm with $50 million fund. The fund wil be invested in sport-related technology and also other areas such as digital content.
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