OneTeam Partners, a company co-launched by the NFL and MLB players’ unions that helps athletes generate revenue from their renown, has taken an equity stake in Mayvenn, Inc., a minority-owned business that enables stylists to sell products like hair extensions directly to clients.
It’s the second investment made by the venture arm of OneTeam, which is also backed by private equity firm RedBird Capital.
OneTeam will contribute at least $1 million to Mayvenn, whose investors include Andreessen Horowitz, music executive Jimmy Iovine and tennis star Serena Williams. The company has a valuation of $110 million.
Created last year as a vehicle to help athletes maximize the value of their name, image and likeness, OneTeam focuses on four main areas: group licensing, athlete marketing, content creation and venture investing.
The major U.S. sports unions have for years worked on licensing and marketing for players, such as deals with video game companies like EA Sports. More recently, however, the unions have sought to take advantage of their members’ name recognition in the investment community, sometimes getting equity stakes in return for allowing companies to utilize their players in marketing.
Besides the football and baseball players, OneTeam also represents the Major League Soccer Players Union, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team union and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association.
Mayvenn founder and Chief Executive Officer Diishan Imira said the tie-up with the athletes is “a dream.”
“We look for two main things in an investor: a shared passion for our mission of empowering the community, particularly Black women, and additional value-add to the company,” he said. “OneTeam has both. These powerful people are heroes in our community. Being able to work with them is a dream and has the potential to have a big impact on our business.”
Mayvenn has sold more than $100 million in products over the past five years and over the past 18 months has expanded into salon services.
OneTeam earlier this year made its first investment, participating in the Series A round of mobile video game company Nifty Games.
