Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, March 15th.

Today on Forbes, Monarch Collective expands fund to $250 million to keep fueling women's sports boom.

When Karen Nortman and Jasmine Robinson started investment fund Monarch Collective two years ago, the duo set out

to raise $100 million. But their concept, to exclusively target the burgeoning world of women's

professional sports, was so well received that they quickly blew past that figure, landing an

additional $50 million. As investor enthusiasm continued,

reports emerged in January that the fund had crossed the $200 million mark.

Now, the firm has reached another milestone.

On Thursday, Monarch Collective announced it has expanded again,

to $250 million.

Nortman, who previously served as a managing partner at Upfront Ventures and in 2020 co-founded

the National Women's Soccer League's expansion club in Los Angeles, Angel City FC, says,

quote, we looked around and said the strategy is exactly the same, but for the amount of work

we're doing and how hard it is

to get the best transactions done with the right people, our fund could probably be a little bit

bigger. To achieve that growth, the fund tapped existing investors, including Melinda French

Gates's pivotal ventures, former Netflix executive Cindy Holland, and Sarah Hardin, CEO of TV

and film production company Hello Sunshine, and new ones such as former Ernst & Young executive,

Beth Brooke, and the Rockefeller Foundation's Elizabeth Yee. It's not as if Monarch was hurting

for capital, even with its three investments to date,

minority stakes in NWSL teams Angel City FC, San Diego Wave FC, and Boss Nation FC, which is set to

begin play next year, the firm had, quote, significant money left in its war chest. But the cash infusion

...