The co-founder of Reddit invested $23 million in the owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

This company was co-founded by Marc Lore, a billionaire and co-owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, along with legendary MLB stars. It is committed to creating a one-stop service platform for fans and currently has a valuation exceeding $100 million.

What new inspiration can this company bring to the Scottish Premiership in China and the Guizhou Village Super League?

Six years ago, when Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, entered the sports industry as the founding controlling shareholder of Angel City FC in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), he was surprised to find that the industry was so resistant to innovative technologies. For example, it's not difficult to implement functions like upgrading seats during a game or direct food delivery, but these services are generally lacking - and the industry's explanations for this only frustrated him more.

Last year, Ohanian launched the women's track and field series Athlos, further expanding his presence in the sports field. He recalled, "Whenever I raised such questions, industry experts and senior people always gave the same answer: 'This is how it's always been done.'"

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However, these industry practices are starting to change. Ohanian is betting on a company dedicated to revolutionizing the fan experience.

This company is Jump, a ticketing and fan experience platform co-founded in 2021 by e-commerce billionaire Marc Lore, legendary MLB star Alex Rodriguez, and entrepreneur Jordy Leiser. On August 12, Jump announced the completion of a $23 million Series A financing round, led by Ohanian's venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, with participation from Courtside Ventures, Will Ventures, and Forerunner. This financing brings the company's total fundraising to $58 million and its valuation to over $100 million.

Under the traditional model, fans often have to visit multiple platforms to buy tickets, merchandise, and food and beverages. Jump is committed to creating a one-stop solution for professional sports teams. The platform not only addresses common pain points such as managing multiple platform accounts and passwords and finding the latest event information but also eliminates high ticketing fees by streamlining the process and offers features that existing services may not provide, such as group purchase options.

Jordy Leiser, the company's CEO, explained, "The easiest way to understand it is to think of Jump as the Shopify of the sports world. What we do for sports teams is what Shopify does for merchants - integrating all services into a unified system."

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Currently, these services have successfully attracted four professional sports teams to join.

In January this year, the North Carolina Courage of the NWSL and North Carolina FC of the United Soccer League (USL) became Jump's first customers. In July, the Minnesota Timberwolves of the NBA and the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA, owned by Lore and Rodriguez, were added. Jump operates on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, charging different licensing fees based on the size of the team and taking a 1% - 5% cut from platform transactions.

According to Forbes, although Jump's current annual revenue is less than $10 million, this is just the tip of the iceberg of a huge market opportunity. Ohanian explained that the traditional business lines of professional sports teams "are already quite mature, well - known, and relatively fixed." This is mainly because media rights and sponsorship contracts are usually long - term. Also, limited by stadium capacity, game - day revenues (including ticket sales and in - stadium food and beverage sales) are not easy to increase. This growth bottleneck has prompted teams to explore new ways to increase revenue.

"Emerging leagues are rising rapidly - basically making up for the time lost due to a long - term lack of investment. And the owners of these leagues have the opportunity to re - examine their businesses from the most basic logic," Ohanian said. "Fans are passionate about both the players and what the teams represent. This is definitely a profitable business."

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Previously, Leiser founded the customer service startup Stella Connect, which was acquired by Medallia for approximately $100 million in 2020. In 2020, after Lore and Rodriguez failed in their bid to acquire the New York Mets, Leiser and his two partners began to think about how to improve fan engagement.

What started as a discussion about dynamic pricing quickly expanded into a broader topic - how to use new technologies to help professional sports clubs optimize their business operations. By 2021, Lore and Rodriguez agreed to acquire the Timberwolves and the Lynx in a three - step process. The combined valuation of the two teams is $1.5 billion. Jump seemed to have an excellent opportunity to develop its product.

However, the deal took several years to complete. In 2024, former team owner Glen Taylor tried to back out, claiming that Lore and Rodriguez had violated the terms of their agreement. An arbitration panel finally resolved the dispute, and the NBA officially approved the transfer of ownership in June. During this period, Jump did not stop developing its product and raised an additional $25 million through two rounds of financing in 2023.

"Even when Glen suddenly changed his mind, no one left," Leiser said. "This incident made us even more determined. We made up our minds: 'Okay, then we'll do it on a larger scale now.' The investors were also very supportive. They saw the opportunity. Our value proposition is very clear: there are many unmet needs among sports teams, and they need the services we can provide."

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Although Jump still needs a few weeks to deploy its technology with the Timberwolves, the North Carolina Courage has already reaped rewards through its platform. This year, after replacing Ticketmaster and other suppliers, the Courage cut costs by six figures. At the same time, the sales of season tickets for multiple games increased, and the number of fans who bought single - game tickets and then repurchased also rose. Steve Malik, a medical technology entrepreneur who owns the Courage and North Carolina FC, participated in Jump's latest financing round after experiencing its product firsthand.

Currently, the $23 million financing round is mainly used for the company's existing expenses, as Jump is still improving its technology and attracting new customers. Like many early - stage startups, Jump is not yet profitable and still relies on external funds to cover the salaries of about 50 employees and high infrastructure costs. However, Jump uses artificial intelligence tools in its software engineering, which may relieve financial pressure in the future.

Jump plans to expand its customer list by the end of 2025. Leiser believes that as more people see the actual effectiveness of the platform, the market's interest in Jump's products will rise rapidly.

"Isn't it the perfect time to explore this field?" Leiser said. "The demand is huge, but why hasn't anyone done it before? Why has it taken so long for someone to think about meeting these needs?"

"Because no one has really dared to do something bold and different. Not everyone can accept 'different' right away. It takes time. That's why we want to use our cooperation cases with the Timberwolves and the Courage to show everyone the real value of this platform."

This article is translated from:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2025/08/12/alex - rodriguezs - startup - jump - raises - 23 - million - in - quest - to - be - shopify - for - sports - teams/

This article is from the WeChat official account "Forbes" (ID: forbes_china). Author: John Hyatt, Translator: Lei & Rach, Proofreader: Lemin. Republished by 36Kr with permission.