About This Fund
Scrum Sports & Entertainment Fund I (SSE) is a $68 million early-stage venture capital fund managed by Scrum Ventures, a San Francisco and Tokyo-based firm specializing in technology investments at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and adjacent digital verticals. Closing on January 8, 2025, SSE is Scrum Ventures' fifth technology-focused fund and its first dedicated vertical fund, reflecting the firm's conviction that the sports and entertainment sector is entering a period of unprecedented digital transformation driven by streaming, data monetization, globalization of sports content, and the emergence of AI-powered fan engagement platforms.
SSE's investment strategy targets technology companies whose innovations serve the sports and entertainment industry but whose solutions also address broader market inefficiencies across adjacent consumer and enterprise sectors. The fund makes pre-seed through Series A-stage investments globally, with particular strategic emphasis on Japan as a critically underserved market for sports technology given its massive consumer entertainment spend and strong corporate demand for global sports IP partnerships. At closing, SSE had already deployed approximately half of its capital across 20 investments in companies spanning live-entertainment discovery (Fever), sports media and golf (TMRW Sports), athlete merchandising (Campus Ink), sleep technology (Ozlo Sleep), recreational sports (Volo Sports), and immersive display technology (Misapplied Sciences).
The fund's limited partners include a consortium of prominent Japanese corporations — SBI Group, Oriental Land Innovations, QR Investment, KOEI TECMO Group, JAPANET Holdings, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, SEGA SAMMY Holdings, TV Asahi Holdings, TOHO Global, Nippon Television Holdings, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, and MUFG Bank — reflecting Scrum Ventures' deep corporate relationships in Japan and its bridge role between global sports tech innovators and Japanese strategic capital. The fund is led by partners Kazuhiro Kiyoshige and Michael Proman, who bring extensive experience in corporate venture, entertainment, and cross-Pacific investment strategy.