The late, great Kobe Bryant co-founded the Art of Sport body care brand for athletes in 2018, along with former Honest Company co-founder Brian Lee, and entrepreneur Matthias Metternich.
Art of Sport launched as a direct to consumer brand that expanded to Amazon and Target. With the success of their product they wanted to fuel product development, distribution expansion, and national marketing efforts online and offline.
Art of Sport raised an oversubscribed funding round of $6 million led by CircleUp Growth Partners. Kobe Bryant participated in the funding of the launch through his investment firm Bryant-Stibel, which retains a stake in the company.
Other investors in the round include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bam Ventures, Darco Capital, Mark Cuban, and Wilson Chandler.
“Art of Sport has a first-to-market brand position and the type of business fundamentals that are pivotal to accelerated, healthy growth,” Benjamin Lee, Managing Director at CircleUp Growth Partners, told Beauty Independent.
The company quadrupled sales this year and is on track for them to multiply 2.5X next year. With their new investments the company can now grow to its predicted retail footprint of 600% by end of 2021, with undisclosed new partners adding to its current 1,600 Target doors.
Photos: Via Art of Sports Instagram
