Lionel Messi gets into finance and creates an investment fund

The captain of the Argentine soccer team, Lionel Messi, announced that he will launch Play Time Sports-Tech HoldCo LLC, a holding company that will invest in sports, media and technology around the world.

The new signing of the ten will be based in the US city of San Francisco and will be the main vehicle from now on for the investments of the Paris Saint Germain player. The company will explore “scenario-independent” opportunities that could include, for example, helping startup founders build soccer technology companies or investing in teams.

I am excited to extend our roots in Silicon Valley and I am delighted that Play Time will collaborate with entrepreneurs from around the world,” said Lionel Messi.

Play Time will be led by Razmig Hovaghimian, a partner at venture capital firm Graph Ventures. Michael Marquez, founding partner of investment bank Code Advisors, will be a special advisor.

Hovaghimian is also a co-founder of Matchday.com, a soccer simulator video game, which has Play Time as its first investor and plans to launch before the Qatar 2022 World Cup kicks off in November. The holding company also has a stake in soccer technology startup AC Momento.

“From the moment I met Leo and the Messi family in 2017, it was clear to me that his vision for the future is bold,” Hovaghimian said in a statement. Although the amount of the investment was not yet known, he added that “they want to continue to have a direct and lasting impact on and off the field.”

Athletes are investors too

However, Messi is not the first elite athlete to decide to dedicate himself to investments. In the case of Serena Williams, the winner of 23 Grand Slams, she created a venture capital company (Serena Ventures) in which she raised 111 million dollars this year. In addition, the American invested in countless startups, from cryptocurrency wallets to online education and healthy food delivery platforms.

Another case is that of LeBron James, the highest-paid player in NBA history, who invested $100 million in 2020 to found an audiovisual content production company called SpringHil Company. He also invested $30.5 million in Canyon, the German firm that produces bicycles used in professional competition, and is a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball as well as a Nascar team.

For his part, tennis player Roger Federer has invested nearly $49 million in On Holding, a Swiss sneaker-producing firm that plans to raise $622 million with its listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has become co-owner of the Denver Broncos team of the National Football League, the largest professional football league in the United States, and has financed nutritional drink firms and vegetarian restaurants.