Sports consulting firm Elevate has announced a $500 million investment fund offering colleges capital for revenue-generating projects such as venue upgrades, NIL platforms and multimedia rights development.
Elevate’s half-billion-dollar College Investment Initiative is fully funded by Velocity Capital Management and the Texas Permanent School Fund. The fund, announced Monday, expands Elevate’s offerings to universities, serving as a new source of lending for athletic departments. Right now, the agency has projects with about 60 schools mainly involving ticketing with its Dynamic Pricing Partners subsidiary. The new fund will dive more into backing athletic departments for long-term growth.
An Elevate spokesperson said the fund is open to considering all types of projects, though the fund primarily is seeking credit deals, rather than equity stakes, and it prefers investments that will generate additional long-term revenue for the schools. The company says two schools have already signed deals with the new fund, though further details aren’t being divulged.
The College Investment Initiative will draw upon the expertise of Elevate’s co-owners and backers. Elevate—which is owned by Arctos, Velocity, the San Francisco 49ers, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment and concessionaire Levy—will provide strategic and operational consulting as part of lending packages. For instance, a stadium renovation could draw upon Elevate’s network of architects and designers, the spokesperson said.
Launched in 2018, Elevate now has more than a thousand clients in sports and entertainment as well as other sectors such as retail and consumer products. Other sports clients include Live Nation, a former equity owner in the business; the PGA Tour and the San Antonio Spurs.
Velocity, launched less than three years ago, is owned by cofounder David Abrams and Indonesian billionaire Robert Budi Hartono, according to a December regulatory disclosure. It had $257 million in assets as of that month.
The Texas Permanent School Fund is one of the nation’s largest endowments, with more than $57 billion in assets. It’s managed for the benefit of grade schools and high schools in the state of Texas.
(This story has been updated in the fourth paragraph to add Arctos to the list of Elevate’s owners.)
