FLASH: Teamworks announces Funding and is now a Unicorn! 🦄
Teamworks announces $235m Series F, north of $1B valuation.
Let’s dig into the big news, but first a message from our sponsors:
EisnerAmper (formerly HPG) - One of the world’s largest business consulting firms, with a dedicated technology practice offering outsourcing, accounting, tax, and advisory services. Our experienced professionals serve more than 2,000 technology companies, from early-stage startups to public enterprises. Discover how EisnerAmper’s stage-specific solutions and industry expertise can help you achieve your milestones whether startup, international expansion, M&A, or IPO: eisneramper.com/tech.
Robinson Bradshaw - A full-service business law firm with a passion for supporting the Triangle entrepreneurial ecosystem. Learn more about Robinson Bradshaw’s startups and venture capital practice here.
Aligned Technology Group - Navigating cloud costs as a startup? ATG helps you maximize AWS Activate credits—up to $100K for startups and $300K for AI-driven startup businesses. As an AWS Advanced Tier Partner, we streamline your cloud journey, optimizing security, scalability, and cost efficiency. Startups move fast. We help you build smarter. Let’s unlock your AWS credits today.
Bank of America – BofA’s Transformative Technology Group helps game-changing tech businesses and founders realize their boldest ambitions across a wide range of technology sectors. With hands-on support, world-class resources, and an extensive network – BofA provides the stability and scalability that tech companies need to rapidly grow today and into the future.
Whitley Recruiting Partners - Whitley Recruiting Partners specializes in recruiting top tech talent for growth-stage startups in the Triangle. We target industry-specific, entrepreneurial employees who drive immediate results through a fast, accurate, and scalable recruiting process. Special offer for Tweener Times subscribers: Free survey of available local talent for one of your openings.
Lithios Apps - Lithios Apps is a Triangle-based software design and development studio that builds custom mobile and web applications focused on quality and user experience. We help founders and teams bring products to life that drive growth, engage customers, and stand out in competitive markets. We've worked side by side with clients whose products have gone on to earn millions in follow-on funding.
ExtensisHR - As a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), ExtensisHR empowers tech founders and growing businesses to scale smarter. We take HR administration off your plate—managing payroll, recruiting, employee benefits and retirement plans, compliance, risk, and more—so you can focus on innovation. For over 25 years we’ve leveraged a people-first approach, customer-centric mindset, and deep industry expertise to ensure employers have the tools needed to stay competitive in today’s market.
About Teamworks
Durham-based Teamworks was founded in 2006 by Duke football players Zach Maurides and Mitch Heath. Their initial idea was simple - how do you take the old-school playbooks that were literally ‘playbook books’ and digitize this experience. That was 19 years ago and it led Teamworks down a path of expansion across sports digital data needs and from their start in NCAA football across teams, in fact they currently tout as count as customers:
100% of NFL teams
90% of MLB & Premier League teams
87% of NBA teams
85% of AFL & NRL teams
99% of DI NCAA athletic departments
65+ Olympic federations across 24 countries
Staying true to their roots as they have grown, they have built out an amazing office in Durham.
About Dragoneer
Based out of San Francisco, CA, Dragoneer is a blue-chip growth-stage firm with over $25B in assets under management. Previous investments include AirBNB, Uber, DoorDash, Snowflake, Spotify, Klarna, Instacart, Databricks, etc.
That’s a pretty darn good track record and it’s going to be awesome to see the Triangle’s own Teamworks on that list.
About the deal
This $235m was done at a valuation north of $1B which puts Zach right on top of that unicorn (live look)👀
Previously Teamworks had raised ~$188m through Series E:
This $235 puts them at $423 raised, just shy of Pendo’s $480m raised.
In the press release, Zach said:
This significant investment validates our vision of creating the most comprehensive technology ecosystem in sports," said Zach Maurides, CEO and Founder of Teamworks. "From our origins in communication and scheduling, to building the defining operating system for sports, this funding positions us to accelerate our data science capabilities and to shape the future of AI in sports."
Christian Jensen, Partner at Dragoneer (this signals it’s his deal) said:
"Teamworks is the unmatched leader in sports technology, delivering critical solutions that are indispensable to organizations across the sports ecosystem," said Christian Jensen, Partner at Dragoneer Investment Group. "Throughout our partnership, we have witnessed firsthand their remarkable execution, product expansion and growth trajectory. Their innovations in talent acquisition, player development, gameday preparation, digital banking, and operational technology create a market-leading end-to-end experience. We're excited to be a part of Teamworks' next chapter as they continue to transform how sports organizations operate."
What’s next?
This is my pure speculation, but this type of investment typically comes with a 3-5yr plan to invest, grow and get to liquidity. Dragoneer does both private and public investing and has a history of moving companies to IPO and even has done a bunch of SPACs (out of favor at the moment).
I’m thinking by 2030, we see Zach ride that ole unicorn (or maybe a fleet of 10?) up to NYSE/NASDAQ and ringing that bell.
In any case, it’s an exciting day for Triangle Tweeners as it shows not only can you grow great Unicorns outside of Silicon Valley, but we have a growing stable full of those 🦄’s right here in the Triangle!