Athletes Turned Angel Investors: Our Super Six

Arsenal and England legend Ian Wright invested in Hackney-based Willy’s Pies in October 2022 after Arsenal Women star Lotte Wubben-Moy convinced Wright to sample one of the company’s pies.

Willy’s Pies was founded during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021 by Will Lewis and Josh Hill after Will was furloughed from his job as a chef.

Will would make the pies and post them on Instagram, and the pair would cycle around London to deliver them.

The business has come a long way since then; Willy’s Pies is now the official pie sponsor of Watford FC.

The company has also collaborated with Wagamama to make a katsu curry pie, and of course, attracted ‘Wrighty’ as an investor.

Willy’s Pies was founded during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2021 by Will Lewis and Josh Hill after Will was furloughed from his job as a chef.

Will would make the pies and post them on Instagram, and the pair would cycle around London to deliver them.

The business has come a long way since then; Willy’s Pies is now the official pie sponsor of Watford FC.

Legendary football player turned legendary football presenter Gary Lineker’s involvement in the football world spans generations. Lineker has invested in several companies over the years, two of which, Flipper and YourBusinessNumber, were founded by his son George.

Arguably Britain’s greatest ever male tennis player, Andy Murray was the first British Wimbledon Men’s Singles champion in 77 years, winning the iconic tournament in 2013 and then again in 2016.

In 2015, Murray partnered with the crowdfunding platform Republic Europe (previously Seedrs), offering strategic advice to the Republic Europe management team and investing through Republic Europe to build his investment portfolio.

One of the companies that Murray has invested in is London-based Perkbox. Perkbox is a subscription-based employee benefit scheme, which features a range of commercial offers and discounts, including supermarket discounts, gym memberships and cinema tickets.

Nico Rosberg gave us the perfect example of quitting while you’re ahead when he chose to retire from Formula 1 in 2016, having just won the World Championship with Mercedes. During this season he beat his teammate and legendary British driver Lewis Hamilton to top the driver rankings.

Since his retirement, Rosberg has moved into F1 punditry, driver management (founding his own Extreme E racing team in 2020) and angel investing. In 2022, Rosberg founded Rosberg Ventures which operates a venture capital fund of funds and Nico’s angel investments.

Rosberg invested in the Westminster-based what3words in 2018. what3words is a geospatial technology company that has divided the world into 3m x 3m squares, assigning each square a unique combination of three words to refer to specific locations.

what3words is popular among delivery companies, especially those delivering to rural locations where finding addresses can be difficult. Some emergency services have encouraged use of their system to help locate people in the case of an emergency.

Currently playing football for Roma in Italy, Chris Smalling is best known for his role in Manchester United’s Premier League title-winning seasons in 2010-11 and 2012-13. Smalling is a vegan, making the transition to a plant-based diet thanks to his wife.

His investment decisions reflect his own lifestyle, with several companies in his portfolio operating in the alternative meat and cleantech sectors. In 2021, Smalling, alongside Rebecca Wheeler and Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni, founded ForGood, a fund that invests in early-stage planet-friendly businesses.

Smalling has invested in several UK high-growth companies, including Allplants, THIS and Heights. Smalling’s investment in Heights comes alongside many other notable names, including Grace Beverley (founder of TALA) and Tom Singh (founder of New Look).

THIS was co-founded in 2017 by Peter Sharman and Andrew Shovel when they quit their jobs as the owners of a burger chain (they’re aware of the irony) and realised they should eat less meat. They found that the options for meat alternatives were lacking, so they decided to make their own. The company now offers a range of products replicating meat products, including lamb kebabs, beef burgers and bacon rashers.

Harry Kane completes the hat trick of English strikers on this list (apparently England strikers have an eye for scoring big!). Widely regarded as one of the best strikers in the history of English football, Kane has captained the England men’s team to back-to-back Euro finals.

Despite Kane’s big move from London to Munich in 2023, the former Spurs man still has investment roots in the UK high-growth ecosystem. Some of his portfolio companies include Freja, Bio&Me, and Urban Legend.

Freja is a bone broth company founded by the husband and wife team of Ed Armitage and Jess Leather in 2020. Freja produces a range of bone broths, including beef, chicken and a vegan variety which are sold via its website and in stores including Selfridges and Whole Foods. Kane invested in the company in January 2023 alongside Olympic triathlete Alistair Brownlee.