NBA veteran Andre Iguodala has joined Comcast Ventures, the venture capital arm of Comcast Corporation. He will be a venture partner at Comcast’s Catalyst Fund, which was founded in 2011 and has invested in more than 70 startups.
The Catalyst Fund invests in startups backed by African-American, Latino, and female founders. The fund’s investments span sectors such as gaming, DTC products, financial technology, and enterprise applications. Catalyst’s existing portfolio includes news media outlet Blavity, online gaming platform Players’ Lounge and Paystack, a digital payment platform intended for businesses in Africa.
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“I am excited to join the Catalyst and Comcast Ventures teams, which will provide me with the opportunity to advise and work with emerging entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds,” Iguodala said in a press release. “I have admired Comcast NBCUniversal’s commitment to invest in startups with founders who are typically underrepresented in the venture world.”
Iguodala has long been one of the sports world’s more active athlete-investors. The three-time NBA champion has previously invested in startups such as video meeting platform Zoom, cloud monitoring software Datadog, and mattress startup Casper.
Last month, Comcast launched an accelerator program dedicated to investing in sports tech companies. The SportsTech Accelerator is a collaboration between Comcast-owned sports media properties NBC Sports, Sky Sports and Golf Channel, alongside sports organizations NASCAR, U.S. Ski & Snowboard and USA Swimming.
