The Women’s National Conference has closed on a $1 million funding round.
It’s the most money to date raised by the semi-pro women’s league, which was founded in 2018. The seed round was led by ProPharma CEO Dawn Sherman, who also owns the WNFC’s Jersey Shore Football Team. This latest capital injection into WNFC comes amid a wave of investment across college and professional women’s sports leagues.
WNFC founder and commissioner Odessa Jenkins is the first black woman pro sports league founder to raise $1 million. Jenkins says the new capital will be allocated across several avenues including sales operations, marketing and overall league infrastructure. WNFC, which is sponsored by Adidas, Riddell and others, is working with law firm Sills Cummis & Gross to position itself in a better place to take on additional capital. The funding will also be allocated to support its central merchandise business, which is a core revenue stream for the upstart league.
“That’s going to go toward vertically integrating all of our apparel,” Jenkins said in an interview. “Just making sure that we can own our apparel line … We want to develop more revenue from apparel because it’s a massive opportunity. It’s something that’s growing 100% year-over-year, but we want to see it grow 700% year-over-year.”
Jenkins said the league will also focus on creating live events and media production. She believes producing more short-form clips and social media promotions will drive awareness for the growing league. WNFC looks to also leverage the growing popularity of girls flag football, which has been a key initiative for other leagues like the NFL.
The 17-team league, which has a distribution deal with DAZN Group, remains in a single-entity structure but looks to eventually evolve into a more traditional ownership model. The league is open is potentially expanding to 20 teams after adding Nashville and Houston, with Chicago and New Jersey set to come on board next year.
The WNFC season opens on April 6.
