Collaborative Fund, the 15-year-old, New York-based generalist venture firm that has roughly $1 billion under management and that made early bets on Lyft, Reddit, Sweetgreen, and Olipop, among others, is taking a stake in the soccer club D.C. United and its stadium, Audi Field. To recap, Joshua Kushner's Thrive launched a new vehicle, Thrive Eternal, explicitly built to hold 'iconic franchises and cultural institutions' for decades, funded by many of the same investors already in Thrive's venture and growth funds. The firm kicked things off by announcing a stake in the San Francisco Giants. Months later, the same vehicle ' with former Disney CEO Bob Iger, a Thrive partner, joining as co-owner ' bought the Lakers outright for a record $12.5 billion. That's new. Historically, money has poured into pro sports two other ways: individual tech fortunes and private equity. For example, Vinod Khosla and his family agreed this summer to buy the Seattle Seahawks for a record $9.6 billion soon...
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