Atlanta Falcons Owner Arthur Blank Debuts Venture Fund For Sports Businesses

Arthur Blank, owner of football’s Atlanta Falcons and soccer’s Atlanta United, is starting a venture fund that will invest in early-stage sports industry businesses.

What Happened: According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Blank’s AMB Sports and Entertainment is launching AMBSE Ventures as a subsidiary for investing in companies pursuing such sports-focused endeavors as fan engagement, sports performance live-event operations, emerging sports and digital media. 

Blank was a co-founder of the Home Depot Inc HD

Steve Cannon, CEO of the new venture fund, said priority will be given to companies with cutting-edge concepts and technologies that can create positive change for the sports world while benefitting Blank’s properties, which include Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the PGA Tour Superstore. 

“We’ll try to get a number of deals done, but we don’t have a fixed number of dollars (to be invested) or a fixed number of deals,” Cannon said, adding this new fund is “prepared to make multi-million dollars’ worth of investments into smart business models.”

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What Happens Next: Cannon noted that AMBSE Ventures will take an equity position in the companies that receive its investment funds, adding that Blank conceived of the fund as a response to finding the innovations which could shape a post-pandemic economy.

The fund is not operating on a timetable for investing, although Cannon acknowledged some deals are “in the queue right now.”

“I feel over the next 12 months we’re going to have our infrastructure built, our team hired and have multiple investments under our belt,” he said.

Photo: Arthur Blank, courtesy of the Atlanta Falcons.