- Alex Morgan is a former professional soccer player and was captain of the U.S. National Team.
- The two-time World Cup champion now runs Trybe Ventures, which invests in the sports space.
- Morgan is looking to bet on women’s teams as well as AI, wellness, and sports media startups.
When professional soccer player Alex Morgan was considering retirement in 2024, moving into venture capital seemed like a natural next step: She was already familiar with navigating sponsorships and had personally structured some of her brand deals.
Morgan’s new firm, Trybe Ventures, comes at a time where investing in athletics — and, particularly, women’s sports — is at an all-time high, with celebrity investors as well as institutional firms such as a16z and Greycroft getting in on the action.
“The evolution of that is that I actually wanted to invest my own money into some of these companies, especially ones that were female-owned or female-backed,” she told Business Insider.
Morgan is a household name, having spent nearly fifteen years on the U.S. Women’s Soccer National Team. She won the FIFA World Cup in 2015 and 2019, the Olympic gold medal in 2012, and she co-captained the team from 2018-2023.
Trybe Ventures focuses on investing in the women’s sports ecosystem, which can include anything from new teams and leagues to healthtech and wellness startups to media startups.
Alexis Ohanian, the husband of Serena Williams who co-founded Reddit and now runs VC firm Seven Seven Six, developed an all-woman track and field meet called Athlos, while the firm Monarch Collective invests exclusively in women’s sports.
And Trybe earlier this year backed Unrivaled, a 3×3 basketball league co-founded by two Women’s National Basketball Association stars. Unrivaled in late 2024 closed a $35 million Series A funding round.
A cultural shift is creating new opportunities for female athletes and investors.
From basketball standout Caitlyn Clark to gymnastics G.O.A.T Simone Biles, women athletes dominated headlines in 2024, driving ticket sales and adding market value to the space.
Still, female athletes and founders alike receive fewer opportunities than their male counterparts — on average, female professional athletes earn 21 times less than their male counterparts, according to Marketplace, while female founders raised 2% or less of VC funding in the U.S. and Europe in 2023, according to PitchBook.
Morgan knows this struggle firsthand: while a member of the Women’s National Team, she was part of a group of several dozen current and former players who sued U.S. soccer over equitable treatment for female players. In 2022, the group received a $24 million settlement, and U.S. Soccer pledged to equalize pay between the men’s and women’s soccer teams in all competitions.
Investing VC dollars into women’s sports is one way to move the needle and pay female athletes what they’re worth, Morgan said — and she’s expecting the current boom to lead to new leagues across different sports as well as better-funded teams.
“Creating new leagues and continuing to invest more in women’s sporting teams is something I’ve seen change firsthand during my time as a professional athlete,” she said. “This work is creating wealth that outlives an athlete’s annual salary.”
Morgan Credits VC firms like Monarch Collective as well as organizations like All Raise, a nonprofit group supporting women and nonbinary founders and investors, with bridging the gap between VCs and women’s sports. A week before she spoke with BI, she collaborated with the two organizations for the official launch of Unrivaled.
In addition to Unrivaled and Ohanian’s Athlos, a handful of VC-backed women’s sports teams have cropped up in the last couple of years, including three professional soccer teams: BOS Nation FC, San Diego Wave FC, and Angel City FC, all of which are backed by Monarch Collective.
PE firm Sixth Street, meanwhile, has invested in Bay FC and just launched a new women’s soccer organization called Bay Collective, which will include multiple clubs.
For Paige Hendrix Buckner, All Raise’s CEO, VC money is finally catching up to the culture after a long period of time where its value has been proven.
“More folks are investing in teams, sports, and leagues, and we know that these folks have been able to convince high-net-worth individuals to invest,” she told BI. “We’re seeing that recognition — you can’t convince an LP to get in on the game short term.”
Morgan is also looking for sports-related investment opportunities among AI, healthtech, and media startups.
While Morgan is confident that AI will never take over live sports —”Humans will be and have always been needed for sports,” she said — she says that she’s excited about ways that tech can advance sports or create something entirely new.
For example, TMRW Sports, the VC firm of pro golfers Tiger Woods and Rory Mcllroy, created a high-tech golf league called TGL, where players swing on real terrain, into a simulator, and back onto a putting green.
Additionally, TGL is using Fastbreak.ai, a SaaS startup that uses AI for league scheduling. The startup, which is also partnered with the NBA, raised a $5.2 seed round in 2023 led by Greycroft.
Morgan is also on the hunt for cutting-edge health and wellness startups that might be a good fit for Trybe. She says she’s eying nutrition startups as well as “anything that can support female athletes as well as provide longevity and lifespan to their careers.”
Rounding out her investing thesis is media: In 2021, Morgan launched the women-focused sports media company TOGETXER with snowboarder Chloe Kim, swimmer Simone Manuel, and WNBA legend Sue Bird. Trybe is looking for startups that support TOGETXER’s mission, Morgan said.
For Morgan, it’s beyond time to bring that energy and investment specifically to women’s sports.
“I’m all-in on women’s sports and the intersection between sports and culture,” Morgan said. “It’s amazing how innovative women’s sports are becoming, and seeing VCs coming in and backing them. I think this is going to be long-lasting and not just a short-term trend.”
