Happy Tuesday. Wrexham’s success shows the upside in sports investing, xAI is looking to raise $20 billion, crypto ETFs had a big week, and Gene Simmons’ mansion hits the market. Let’s dive in!
🎫 Register: For our next event - a look at Bitcoin vs. Gold with the co-founder of Argo Digital Gold and co-founder of crypto media leader Milk Road. May 6 at 12 PM ET.
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📈 DAILY MARKETS
*as of 4/28; Sources: S&P, BTC, FTSE, DJRE, CL50
⚽ WREXHAM
The Welsh soccer team Wrexham made history over the weekend by achieving their third straight promotion, and will play in England’s second-highest league next season. The club’s rapid rise from the 5th tier of English soccer began when Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchased the team for $2.5 million in 2020 and invested heavily into the club (and made the journey into a successful docuseries). The club generated a record $35.5 million in revenue last season and their revenue this season is reportedly comparable to teams in the second tier.
➨ TAKEAWAY: The team’s success has already boosted its valuation to an estimated $133 million, more than 50x what Reynolds and McElhenney bought it for, and this promotion will only increase that. Now one step from the Premier League, the club’s success is truly a Hollywood story, and will only attract more eyeballs and attention this year. It’s no wonder that investing into sports teams has become increasingly popular for private equity firms, and there have started to be opportunities for individual investors as well.
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📺 UPCOMING EVENT
Next Tuesday at 12 PM ET, join Vincent CEO Eric Cantor as he talks with Argo Digital Gold co-founder Peter Grosskopf, and Milk Road co-founder Kyle Reidhead about the competing stores of value - Bitcoin and Gold. The three will compare and analyze both assets and discuss how investors should approach them, particularly during tumultuous macro environments.
🤖 XAI RAISE
Elon Musk’s xAI Holdings, which owns both the AI startup xAI and the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), is aiming to raise $20 billion, which would be the second largest VC funding round ever. It will reportedly come at a valuation of $120 billion, which is slightly above the combined valuation of $113 billion that Musk claimed when xAI acquired X last month. It also represents significant growth over xAI’s valuation of $24 billion a year ago.
➨ TAKEAWAY: This new raise would solidify the value of the relatively new holding company, and relieve X of a lot of the debt burden it holds from Musk’s 2022 acquisition. While Musk has become a controversial figure politically, his companies still generate high VC interest and demand, with Neuralink also recently securing funding at a 75% gain in value. His space startup SpaceX is the most valuable private company in the world and all of his private companies have significant buying demand on the secondary market.
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📰 NOTABLE NEWS
🪙 Big week for crypto ETFs: There were $3.4 billion of inflows to crypto ETFs last week, the third highest week of all-time, pushing Bitcoin’s price up by more than 7%, and Ethereum’s by 12%. Bitcoin captured 93% of the inflows, with Ethereum taking nearly all the rest.
🍷 WineFi seed round: The London-based startup secured a £1.5M funding round to build out their fine wine investing platform, which allows individuals access to curated wine portfolios.
🚀 VC secondaries continue to boom: There is projected to be more than $120 billion in volume on the secondaries market in 2025, nearly a 5x gain since 2012, as investors seek liquidity in the absence of other exit activity.
💵 Apollo’s “New Markets” group: The alternative asset giant is launching a new unit of its business to attract individual investors and partner with traditional asset managers who would offer their clients access to private market assets.
🏢 RE secondaries fund: StepStone raised a $4.5 billion real estate secondaries fund, the largest ever, despite the general slowdown in the real estate market.
⚾ Ken Griffey Jr. card: A 1998 Skybox E-X 2001 card numbered to 10 is on sale for the first time publicly since 2006, and the bidding is up to $122,000 - it last sold for $512.
🏡 LISTING OF THE WEEK
Kiss lead singer Gene Simmons is putting his 7,740 square foot, 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom Beverly Hills mansion on the market - with a catch. He wants to approve the buyer, and doesn’t want anyone who uses drugs or is an alcoholic, to ensure the house is well looked after. The property boasts an infinity pool, bronze sculptures, a home theater, a gallery space, and an 1,800 square foot outdoor space. Simmons bought the mansion for $10.5 million in 2021 and it is currently listed for $14 million.
