Monarch Collective, a U.S. based investment firm focused solely on women’s sports investments, has gone international.
Wednesday, the company made its first European deal, buying a stake in German Women’s Bundesliga club FC Viktoria Berlin. The company says it’s the first non-German investor to buy a stake in a Women’s Bundesliga team.
Monarch declined to share the value of the investment, but said they will have a 38% ownership stake in the team.
“It’s by far the largest of any minority transaction that we’re aware of,” Monarch co-founder Kara Nortman told Front Office Sports. “We really are meaning investors alongside the six female co-founders. It’s a club that was born in 1889 in Berlin, one of the most historic markets in the world. The biggest city in Germany, largest GDP. The six female co-founders are extraordinary. They reminded me a lot of the early days when Julie [Uhrman,] Natalie [Portman,] and I were starting Angel City.”
FC Viktoria Berlin women’s team was launched in 2022, branching off from an existing men’s club, which is common in Europe. They were promoted to the Frauen-Bundesliga’s second division this season. The goal with this investment is preparing them to become a first division team.
In mid-October, the German Football Association announced plans to make a 100 million euro investment into women’s soccer.
The club’s introduction to Monarch, which came a little over a year ago, was the result of a Harvard Business School case study on Angel City FC written by professor Jeffrey F. Rayport.
“He reached out to me and said ‘Kara, have you heard of this team?’” Nortman said. “I looked at their website and it was one the best executed women’s football websites I have ever seen. That’s how we initially met.”
Nortman said Monarch is actively meeting with clubs on an informational basis.
Investments they are making now have often been deliberated on for a year or more. Nortman said the company has been looking to make an investment in Europe dating back to just before Monarch was founded in 2023.
The fund—which originally started at $150 million before expanding to $250 million in March—already has stakes in three NWSL clubs: Angel City FC, San Diego Wave FC, and expansion franchise Boston FC which begins play in 2026.
In 2024 the NWSL announced governing rules limiting private equity investments to a minority stake in no more than three clubs. Boston FC was Monarch’s initial investment and after meeting the NWSL threshold with investments in Angel City and San Diego in 2024, questions swirled about where Monarch would go next.
The WNBA seemed like the obvious next move. Instead, they went abroad.
“We make it a practice of not commenting on things that have not been done yet,” Nortman said when asked about their interest in investing in the WNBA. “But since the beginning we’ve been consistent and even when we expanded our fund, we’ve been very focused and disciplined on the most mature parts of the ecosystem.”
