Deals

Insight lines up single-asset process on Fanatics

The PE and VC investor is moving the sports apparel business into a continuation fund backed by secondaries capital, Secondaries Investor understands.

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Insight Partners, which carried out one of the most complex GP-led deals of recent years, is back in the secondaries market.

The New York-based private equity and venture capital firm is transferring sports apparel business Fanatics into a continuation fund, according to two sources familiar with the process. The deal with be worth just north of $1 billion, according to one of the sources.

Goldman Sachs is understood to be an adviser on the deal, the price of which will be set by a primary fundraising round. It is not clear which fund Insight’s stake is held in.

Insight and Goldman did not respond to requests for comment.

Jacksonville, Florida-headquartered Fanatics was spun off by e-commerce giant Ebay in 2011, according to affiliate title PE Hub. In 2012, the company raised $150 million from Insight and VC firm Andreessen Horowitz in a deal that valued the business at $1.5 billion.

Fanatics held a funding round in August which valued the business at $18 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported. Among the investors behind the $325 million round were SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Silver Lake and Roc Nation, an entertainment business owned by rapper Jay-Z.

In 2019, Insight Partners took 30 companies from seven different funds and transferred them into a $1.5 billion continuation vehicle, Secondaries Investor reported. The deal was led by Harbourvest Partners and Coller Capital.

Last March, Secondaries Investor reported that Insight was raising a $1.25 billion fund to make primary and secondary investments in its own portfolio companies. Insight Venture Partners X Follow-On Fund buys stakes in companies held by 2017-vintage Insight Venture Partners X.

Single-asset deals accounted for 39 percent of continuation fund deals by volume in 2021, according to data from investment bank Greenhill.