The Business of Megan Rapinoe
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Executive Brief: USWNT soccer star Megan Rapinoe is one of several recent investors in the sports tech company, STATSports. After using the technology for a few years, Rapinoe jumped at the chance. Other investors include Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, and Raheem Serling. Today’s newsletter breaks down the investment, discusses Rapinoe’s other investments and endorsements, and provides an overview of her soccer success, fight for progressive rights, and other business dealings.
The Business of Megan Rapinoe
Megan Rapinoe is one of several investors in new sports technology STATSports, the GPS data company founded in Northern Ireland in 2007. The company has built itself up from three clients in 2007 to working with over 500 sports teams across 60 countries in 2021. Over the past three years, the company has grown 200% year-on-year and is planning an IPO next year with a potential NYSE listing to boot. Like Rapinoe, who is an investor and ambassador for the tech company, other investors include English soccer stars Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling and Harry Maguire to name a few. The men are also going to be ambassadors for the company.
STATSports, planning its U.S. campaign launch has teamed up with Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Timothy Weah, Tyler Adams, and Caden Clark as its American investors and ambassadors as it tries to infiltrate the U.S. market. The U.S. launch comes as STATSports offers its Apex Athlete Series to amateur players. The offerings include the Apex Vest, a black ‘sports-bra’-type garment that holds the device in place, the Apex Performance Pod, the tracking device, and the Apex Athlete Series App, which provides real-time data. The bundle of items will cost $300 USD.
STATSports
STATSports has had a partnership with US Soccer for several years now. When the pandemic hit, and everyone was training from home, Rapinoe dove into the tech when she withdrew from all competitions and national teams to take time to rebuild her body. She used the device almost daily. Almost a year later, the opportunity came to invest. Rapinoe jumped at the chance.
As I mentioned in my first newsletter on WHOOP, wearable technology is a massive growth market. The technology and data are getting so good that users can use the tech to measure, grow, and perform. Rapinoe has seen the same development over her last 12 years as a professional player. STATSports devices measure user performance across 16 metrics, including speed, balance, and intensity, to name a few. The tech helps because it provides metrics to what’s happening and allows users to build a narrative around the data to maximize certain traits and let them know what they need to improve on. Sometimes, the visual aspect is necessary, especially for professional athletes who spend countless hours getting 1% better. Even if it only helps you work a little bit smarter, the slightest edge can be the difference between being a star and a regular player.
While soccer has been the foundation of her life so far, this partnership with STATSports is another way she can use the sport to propel her financial interests forward for when retirement comes. Of course, Rapinoe’s investments don’t end with STATSports.
Investments
She, like many other USWNT players, was severely underpaid during her playing days both domestically and internationally. However, that has not stopped her from accumulating endorsements and making impact investments. As she approaches retirement, Rapinoe expects to become much more involved in the investment space and start using her influence to provide value to company’s she invests in as an ambassador or equity partner. Rapinoe has 2.3 million followers on Instagram, 935k followers on Twitter, and over 700k followers on Facebook all of which she will likely leverage for future investment deals like the one with STATSports.
Michael Chow, USA Today Sports
Fortunately, Rapinoe’s influence online and in the world allows her to leverage her likeness to get in on more deals and funds beyond just providing monetary investment. Rapinoe is quoted as saying that this is one of the many ways she and others continue to chip away at the equal pay gap.
In 2018, Rapinoe invested in The Wing, at the time, the fastest-growing women’s co-working and social space designed for women, as a part of the company’s $75 million Series C funding raise, bring its total funding to almost $117.5 million. In line with Rapinoe’s values, The Wing’s mission is the advancement of women through community.
In April 2021, Rapinoe invested in a subscription-based mental health start-up company, Real, which raised $10 million in Series A funding. The company was launched in 2020 after it was reported that the annual amount spent on mental health care in the U.S. reached nearly $240 billion. NFL player, Eric Kendricks, and celebrity Gwyneth Paltrow also have invested in the company. Real is focused on delivering women across the country affordable and accessible on-demand digital therapy with subscription prices starting under $30 per month.
In 2019, Rapinoe, Tobin Heath, Meghan Klingenberg, and Christen Press founded re-inc, a gender-neutral streetwear brand aimed at inspiring people to reimagine the status quo in the world and their everyday lives. Noticing that streetwear was completely male-dominated at the time, the foursome saw the opportunity to break through and have a conversation through their products. Their products are eco-conscious, creative, designed for all gender identities and body types, and focus on continually reinventing.
Pentagram
Endorsements
Rapinoe’s endorsement deals include:
Procter & Gamble – Multinational consumer goods corporation
BodyArmor – Sports drink company that was recently purchased by Coke for $5.6 billion
Hulu – A streaming platform owned by the Walt Disney Company
LUNA Bar – Brand of nutrition bar created by Clif Bar
Smirnoff – Vodka brand
Samsung – Electronics and technology company
Vitamin Water – Vitamin water and enhanced beverage company
DJO Global – medical device company
Wildfang – clothing company
Rapinoe’s most lucrative endorsement deal is Nike. In 2016, she was featured in a prominent Nike commercial with Christiano Ronaldo.
New Cristiano Ronaldo Nike Ad/Commercial ● The Switch 2016
She also collaborated with Nike and launched the 2020 campaign titled “You Can’t Stop Us” where Rapinoe narrates and stars in the commercial.
Nike - You Can't Stop Us (2020)
Soccer Success and Activism
Beyond her business ventures, Rapinoe is a Winner of the Ballon d’Or Feminin and was named The Best FIFA Women’s Player in 2019. Rapinoe won gold with the women’s national team at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, and won the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, winning the Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She was a co-captain of the USWNT from 2018 to 2020 earning a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics during her run. She has also played professional soccer domestically in several countries, most recently with the Orlando Reign where she now captains the squad. In 2020, Rapinoe was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Reuters
Her soccer prowess is unquestioned, but Megan Rapinoe will likely go down in history books for what she does off the field instead of what she did on. The 36-year-old star is an advocate for numerous LGBTQ+ organizations including Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Athlete Ally, a non-profit organization that focuses on ending homophobia and transphobia in sports. In 2018, Rapinoe and her now-fiancé Sue Bird, future WNBA Hall-of-Famer, graced the cover of ESPN Magazine’s Body Issue as the first openly gay couple to appear in the Body Issue. Rapinoe’s memoir book titled, One Life, was released in November 2020 and quickly became a New York Times best-seller
ESPN, The Body Issue
Rapinoe has been involved in the women’s team’s equal pay complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission since at least 2016. In March 2019, she and 27 USWNT teammates filed a lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation accusing it of gender discrimination, further advocating for equal pay. In May 2020, a judge dismissed key parts of the lawsuit including the complaint about receiving lower pay than USMNT players but allowed other claims to proceed to trial. The matter is ongoing.
As her playing career comes to an end, Rapinoe expects to continue to fight for the USWNT equal pay rights along with all her other activism endeavours. Never one to limit herself, though, Rapinoe also expects to stay involved in the game while continuing to build her investment portfolio and use her influence to exert progressive change in the world and in business.
Thank you for reading. Have a great day, and we’ll talk on Monday.
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Game of the Weekend
Team Canada’s Men’s National Team takes on Costa Rica tonight, Friday 12th, 2021, at 9:00 pm ET (available on TSN and DAZN) in front of 50,000 fans at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta in the final round of its CONCACAF World Cup qualifying campaign. Canada currently sits in 3rd place in the league, in the final World Cup qualifying spot. Team Canada is led by Edmonton-native international soccer phenom, Alphonso Davies.