From the 2020 acquisition of Jrue Holiday in a four-team trade to a $228 million deal to keep star Giannis Antetokounmpo for another five years, the Milwaukee Bucks have made major investments leading up to their 2021 NBA Finals appearance beginning Tuesday night.
But off the court, some Bucks players and owners have made significant investments in startups ranging from Milwaukee-based short-term rental platform Frontdesk Inc. to Vancouver-based Dapper Labs Inc., a non-fungible token (NFT) company that powers digital trading card platform NBA Top Shot.
Antetokounmpo is an investor in Ready Nutrition, a Pennsylvania company that makes sports drinks and snacks. But his higher-paid teammate, Bucks star forward Khris Middleton, is one of the latest team members to get involved with startup investing, with three investments made this year.
Middleton invested in California-based hiring platform Crosschq Inc. in March and Brooklyn-based sports network Overtime Sports Inc. in April, according to Crunchbase Inc. He was also among more than a dozen professional athletes — including Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant — to invest in Dapper Labs' $350 million Series C financing round.
Middleton's annual salary was $33 million and Antetokounmpo's was $27.5 million, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal's most recent list of highest-paid athletes in Wisconsin. The two Bucks stars were the second- and third-highest paid athletes in the state after Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Holiday — the third-highest paid Bucks player with an annual salary of $25.9 million — and his wife, two-time Olympic gold medalist Lauren Holiday, recently invested in seven Milwaukee-based Black-owned businesses through their Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund (JLH Fund).
The Holidays' recent investments, which were in the form of non-dilutive grants totaling $1 million, including contributions to 50 nonprofits and small businesses in four cities, are "one of the more impactful things I've seen," in terms of startup investments from members of the Bucks, said Jay Creagh, a Godfrey & Kahn attorney specializing in startups.
"Non-dilutive grant funding is a great thing for the companies," Creagh said. "It means that they get the money and don’t have to give anything back in return."
Among the Milwaukee businesses to receive a piece of the JLH Fund grant money were Flora Fruit Co., which participated in the most recent gBeta Milwaukee program run by Wisconsin-based startup accelerator gener8tor, and PumpFive, which currently is participating in an intensive two-week version of the Milky Way Tech Hub Accelerator.
While the Bucks players may just be getting started in the world of startup investing, Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry is more seasoned. He was an early investor in Frontdesk, which was founded in 2017. Lasry invested $250,000 in 2018 and his son Alex Lasry is a member of Frontdesk's board.
Frontdesk co-founder and CEO Kyle Weatherly said Marc Lasry's investment was "incredible for market signaling," and led to increased interest from other investors. In 2019, Frontdesk raised $2.75 million from investors including Milwaukee's La Macchia Holdings.
Weatherly said he met Alex Lasry shortly after Lasry moved to Milwaukee in 2014, after Marc Lasry bought into the team. Alex offered to invest in Frontdesk several times but Weatherly declined because he wasn't comfortable accepting money from a friend. Alex eventually suggested that his father could invest and Weatherly accepted, Weatherly said.
In addition to Frontdesk, Marc Lasry has invested in startups including California-based Lucra Sports and Ozy Media Inc., as well as New York City-based Wine By Design Inc. and Tel Aviv-based iAngels Crowd Ltd., according to Crunchbase. He led Ozy's $35 million Series C round in 2019.
Lasry also recently invested in BlockTower Capital, a cryptocurrency and blockchain investment firm, according to CB Insights.
New Fortress Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: NFE), a global energy infrastructure company that Bucks co-owner Wes Edens co-founded and leads, invested in Israel-based renewable energy company H2Pro in October, according to a press release.
