The NFL was the last of the four major North American professional sports leagues to allow institutional investors to buy stakes in its teams, changing its ownership rules in 2024, and although InStudio Ventures isn’t among the eight private equity firms that have earned the league’s stamp of approval, founder and managing partner Danny Cortenraede has found his way into pro football anyway.

InStudio’s stakes in the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers, acquired via a partnership with another firm, are the most attention-grabbing names anchoring a $50 million sports and performance fund the Los Angeles-based firm is launching on Tuesday.

But while those prestige assets—along with a small slice of the Aston Martin Formula 1 team—will bolster the fund’s credibility in a crowded marketplace, Cortenraede plans to invest the majority of its assets in earlier-stage startups bringing AI into sports.

“These anchor investments have outperformed the S&P 500 already for 20 years, but we don’t expect to make 10x our money on them—let’s be realistic,” says Cortenraede, who was raised in the Netherlands and immigrated to the United States eight years ago. “How we will achieve a 3x multiple on our fund is by also investing in sports technology companies.”

One portfolio company Cortenraede is particularly excited about is Springbok Analytics, which uses AI to create 3D visualizations from MRI data. The........

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