Kara Nortman’s Early Bet on Women’s Sports Is Paying Off

Venture capitalist Kara Nortman’s strategic investment in women’s sports is yielding substantial returns, demonstrating the powerful commercial potential of this rapidly expanding market. While her soccer club, Angel City FC, concluded its most recent season in 11th place out of 13 teams, the franchise’s financial performance tells a far more compelling story. The team has become a celebrated model for building a successful women’s sports organization, even earning a place in Harvard Business School’s curriculum.

Angel City’s impressive roster of celebrity owners, featuring Natalie Portman and Serena Williams, generated remarkable public interest from the start. The club also proved exceptionally skilled at securing sponsorships, shattering records before its inaugural match was even played. Nortman recently reflected on this achievement, stating, “We went from zero to $30 million in revenue. We sold out games. We built something people didn’t think was possible.” This commercial triumph, rather than on-field victories, provided the foundation for her next major venture.

That success became the blueprint for the Monarch Collective, a $250 million fund Nortman established in 2023. This pioneering investment vehicle focuses exclusively on women’s sports. Although its inspiration came from a team yet to win a playoff game, Monarch’s influence now extends well beyond its origins. The fund has acquired stakes in three additional National Women’s Soccer League clubs: the San Diego Wave, Boston Legacy FC, and its most recent addition, FC Viktoria Berlin. The Berlin investment is particularly noteworthy, marking the first time a foreign investor has taken a stake in a German women’s soccer team.

This diverse portfolio reflects Nortman’s firm belief that women’s sports have reached a critical turning point, a conviction backed by compelling data. She explains the market’s dramatic growth, noting, “The overall men’s sports market globally is estimated to be about half a trillion dollars. The women’s sports market, when we started Monarch in 2023, was thought to be about half a billion dollars. It’s now closer to $3 billion.”

Capitalizing on this expansion demands a unique strategy distinct from men’s sports. Nortman points to innovative marketing tactics that would be unusual in traditional men’s leagues, such as dropping Sephora boxes from the arena rafters or hosting special collaboration nights. Angel City’s creative approach to fan engagement and partnerships built so much value that media power couple Bob Iger and Willow Bay purchased a majority stake for $250 million last fall, establishing it as the world’s most valuable women’s sports franchise.

Nortman, who left a traditional venture capital role to focus entirely on this sector, sees Angel City’s business achievements as strong validation for Monarch’s core thesis. She is keenly aware, however, that past surges of interest in women’s sports have faded. She often references a historical event from 1920, when a women’s football match in Liverpool drew 60,000 spectators, a larger crowd than many Premier League games attract today. The following year, the English Football Association banned women from playing, causing the sport to virtually disappear for decades.

“Everyone gets to wake up and become the discoverer of women’s sports when they do,” Nortman observes. “But it takes consistent, hard work to get that to play out into consistency.” She argues that lasting success requires more than just capitalizing on the popularity of breakout athletes; it demands systematic investment in the foundational elements of infrastructure, governance, and day-to-day operations.

This philosophy shapes Monarch’s distinctive investment approach. Instead of making numerous passive bets, the fund takes concentrated positions in a select group of teams and leagues, then becomes deeply involved in their operational management. Nortman describes the strategy as combining venture-like market opportunities with the rigorous risk management typically seen in growth or private equity. “We show up alongside control owners and add a lot of operational value,” she explains. The objective is to guide teams toward breaking even or achieving profitability in their core operations, preparing them to capture the benefits of future growth in media revenue.

Monarch’s interests are not confined to soccer. The fund is broadly focused on sports that Nortman categorizes as having “no product-market risk”, established formats with demonstrated audience appeal. She questions whether people will dedicate time to watching a sport on television, distinguishing between participatory activities and spectator events. Consequently, the fund is also exploring opportunities in women’s basketball, golf, and tennis, all of which possess significant media revenue potential and existing organizational structures.

The firm’s current investors include Melinda French Gates and former Netflix executives, and interest in its mission continues to build. Monarch’s initial fund ultimately reached $250 million, substantially surpassing the $100 million that Nortman and her co-founder, former Causeway investor Jasmine Robinson, originally targeted. Nortman attributes this oversubscription to the market’s accelerated maturation during their fundraising period. She recalls initial skepticism, with many conversations questioning the viability of women’s basketball. The subsequent rise of Caitlin Clark and record-breaking WNBA viewership dramatically shifted perceptions, making basketball one of the most sought-after sectors.

This growing validation supports Nortman’s overarching thesis: successful investment in women’s sports is not about finding one perfect team, but about cultivating an entire ecosystem where multiple franchises can prosper. Some will win titles, while others may struggle competitively but excel as businesses. The crucial element is having sufficient capital and operational expertise distributed across the market to withstand individual setbacks.

Angel City’s model appears to be influencing other ownership groups. Nortman notes the emergence of other teams with female-led ownership, such as those in Kansas City, the Bay Area, and Washington D.C., demonstrating they can build profitable enterprises. Whether by design or not, Angel City has provided a template for others to follow.

As women’s sports experiences what seems to be a sustained boom, with new WNBA teams like the Golden State Valkyries, NWSL expansion, and growing media rights deals, Nortman maintains a measured optimism. She believes the key to making this moment different from previous ones lies in the fundamentals: robust league governance, committed ownership, strategic infrastructure investment, and authentic community engagement. Media attention creates windows of opportunity, but operational excellence is what makes growth sustainable.

“Every spike is an opportunity to create a consistent experience around it,” Nortman asserts. “You have to look at all the underlying criteria to see where it’s likely to stick around.”

(Source: TechCrunch)