The year kicks off to a good start for Fearless Adventures, which has partnered with women’s authentic football merchandise brand Foudys. The Wilmslow-headquartered embedded venture capital firm will inject cash, support fulfilment and provide growth marketing expertise to help scale the fast growing direct-to-consumer (DTC) e-commerce brand globally.
As the female game experiences huge growth, Foudys fulfils an unmet need for the swelling numbers of female footy fans. It prints official, authentic club football jerseys and fan apparel for Women’s Football League (WSL) teams including Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. When it launched in December 2020, you couldn’t purchase WSL shirts with the correct letters and badging specific to the women’s game directly from clubs, making Foudys the only option for women’s club supporters. Previously, their only option was to wear men’s league shirts.
Foudys has won WSL printing rights in the UK and recently in Europe, making it well placed to win new licences around the world. It has also just signed contracts with sportswear giants Nike and Puma. So the investment will allow the business to increase its stock buying capability and offer grassroots kit supplies for the women’s game.
32-year-old Helen Hardy founded the company. Well known for covering women’s league fixtures for the BBC, she is a passionate voice for women’s equality in football and LGBTQ+ rights.
Helen Hardy, founder of Foudys commented: “I’m so excited to work with Fearless Adventures. They’re entrepreneurs who have been on fast growth journeys, and their experience and expertise are hugely valuable. For me, this journey is about so much more than launching a successful e-commerce business, it’s about growing women’s football by increasing brand awareness and spotlighting products that focus solely on the women’s game. Unlike other investors, the Fearless Adventures team understands my motivations offering a tailored approach that will help take Foudys to the next level.”
Oli Connolly, Investment Director, Fearless Founders commented: “We’re actively investing in businesses with a strong purpose led by passionate, inspiring founders. Helen and Foudys are exactly this. With women’s football surging in popularity, demand for Foudys has been on fire and its recent deals with the biggest names in sports are evidence of this.”
Rachel McDonald, Managing Director, Fearless Adventures, added: “We are looking forward to supporting Helen and Foudys on its growth mission. We truly believe that Foudys will be the standout disruptor in women’s football with customers searching for something other than the male-centric retail platforms.”
Helen Hardy founded Foudys in 2020 in her bedroom in Manchester. A native Geordie and football shirt collector, Helen has been working in women’s football since 2019 with the BBC and others to spotlight the women’s game as a pundit, summariser and co-commentator.
This latest deal with Foudys sees Fearless Adventures tap into the fast-growing women’s football arena. Additionally, as a proud signatory of the Investor in Women Code, this continues to highlight Fearless Adventures as a stand-out investor for female founders.
Founded in October 2021 by a trio of the country’s brightest young entrepreneurs, David Newns, Dominic McGregor and Charlie Yates, Fearless Adventures uniquely offers each partner entrepreneur a platform of support to help their business scale.
Charlie Yates said: “There was a noted wider market slowdown in investment activity towards the end of 2022 but we continue to speak with incredibly exciting brands that are looking to capitalise on their existing success and access support to scale.”
Investment through Fearless Adventures brings capital combined with mentorship, marketing, fulfilment and talent sourcing amongst other benefits. The founders believe this embedded venture capital model isn’t currently offered under one roof elsewhere and is the key to high growth and more successful exits further down the line.
The growth in women’s football
According to UEFA in its Business Case for Women’s Football, 2022, women’s professional football is nascent but one of the fastest growing sports in the UK.
It already has a significant fan base, which is growing faster than other sports, with 144 million fans of women’s football across Europe; this is expected to double over the next decade.
Clubs have an opportunity to boost their brands – 87% of integrated clubs said that involvement with women’s clubs has had a positive impact on their reputation.
Top women’s leagues in Europe are attracting major sponsors, such as Barclays and AXA, and the number of landmark broadcast deals continues to increase, with headline partners including Sky, the BBC and DAZN.
The fanbase is diverse and largely young, and has strong progressive values (including gender equality, LGBTQ rights, community and diversity).
The Football Association announced a record-breaking £8m-a-year deal with Sky and BBC for the broadcast rights to the Women’s Super League.
As reported by the BBC, the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 in England spurred growth in the game’s fandom:
Women’s football merchandise spiked 640% in the 4 hours after England’s final victory
Over 574,000 people attended the matches
Over 300m viewers worldwide.
Over 450 million social interactions
#WEURO2022 surpassed 1 billion video views on TikTok
England’s 2-1 final victory drew more than 17.4 million viewers and was the most-watched women’s football match ever in the UK
The Guardian reported that investors are lining up to buy teams in the US league. In 2019 an expansion team – a new franchise in the league – sold for $325 million. This is an enormous value even by global standards, as the amount ‘would buy a mid-table club in the Premier League or pretty much any of Europe’s other big five leagues’.