Tesla chair and Blackbird companion Robyn Denholm is the newest tech titan bitten by the sports activities bug, shopping for into Australian basketball crew The Sydney Kings.
Denholm’s 30% share within the Kings, by way of her household funding workplace, Wollemi Capital Group (WGC), additionally consists of Ladies’s NBL membership Sydney Flames.
Majority proprietor and Kings chairman Paul Smith is promoting a stake of the membership’s holding firm Hoops Capital, with outspoken former basketballer Andrew Bogut remaining as a co-owner.
Denholm launched Wollemi Capital final yr to put money into companies and ventures that ship optimistic impacts for the communities. Whereas proudly owning a sports activities crew is commonly see as a trophy for billionaires, WCG sees the optimistic impacts of sport as a key focus. Her grownup youngsters, Matthew and Victoria, grew up as basketball followers watching the Kings play earlier than the household moved to the US, shall be concerned within the membership whereas Denholm brings her governance abilities to the enterprise.
Smith mentioned the settlement marked a significant milestone for the expansion of the Kings and basketball in Australia.
“We’re delighted to have Robyn be a part of us in her capability as founding father of the Wollemi Capital Group. Along with her company acumen and expertise, she shall be an asset to our board,” he mentioned.
“She joins us alongside Matthew and Victoria who deliver a transparent ardour for each males’s and girls’s basketball in our possession. I feel this range will guarantee we’re in an incredible place to attain one thing very significant over the subsequent 20 years.”
Denholm mentioned she was “blown” away by the imaginative and prescient and work of Smith and Hoops Capital.
“We’re significantly impressed with the dedication to range proven by being the one organisation in Australia with each feminine and male basketball groups on the highest degree. Wollemi Capital Group is worked up to be making a long-term partnership,” she mentioned.
Matthew Denholm mentioned they large potential for the expansion of basketball in NSW and nationally.
“It is a complete of household ardour, and we hope by changing into a part of the Hoops Capital household we are able to advance basketball and develop the game so that everybody can expertise the distinctive pleasure of basketball throughout our group” he mentioned.
Basketball is a fast-growing sport in Australia, with the 2022 FIBA Ladies’s World Cup, that includes nationwide groups from 12 international locations taking part in 38 video games to throughout 10 days from September 22 in Sydney.
Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes can be a basketball crew proprietor, having nabbed a stake US NBA crew Utah Jazz in late 2020, in a A$2.2 billion alongside fellow tech billionaire Ryan Smith, co-founder of Qualtrics, and Accel VC investor Ryan Sweeney.
In November final yr, Cannon-Brookes signed on with actor Russell Crowe and fellow billionaire James Packer to seize a 25% share of the South Sydney NRL membership.
