Y11 is a diversified sport and media investment house, working with founders and their brands to maximise potential and reach collective goals
We are committed to transforming high-potential organisations into sustainable and iconic brands.
It also taught me how to deal with the lows, mental fatigue, the injuries that prevented me from the Sydney Olympics. These failures teach you more than the wins and to persevere through adversary to come out stronger. In sport, my number was 11, in business its Y11!
Understanding first hand the glory and pain of sport is essential for what I wanted to do at Y11. We invest our capital in an industry that isn’t really comfortable with the world of finance, so we try not to operate like that. We instead are passionate about sport’s role and importance for people and society. We want the sellers of sports businesses to look at Y11 as the right custodian for what they have built, and take it forward.
At the same time, sport isn’t a normal asset class, and if not approached with empathy and EQ, will not be successful as an investment. That is why I started Y11; I think we can be that bridge. We are good at spotting unrealised value in sports assets, bringing them into our family and helping them be bigger and better businesses, using our capital, and expertise. Every asset we have bought is with an eye to grow it very significantly, as part of our family
James Davies-Yandle
We see Y11 as good parents, bringing the potential and ideas of the family to life, through a rather unique offering of long-term funding, industry credibility, operational experience, and global best-practice.
We look to identify good sport businesses with vision and ideas, and help them grow through our investment of capital, synergies with our group, common central services, and our global network and knowledge base. and our brand.
We have been able to directly contribute to the revenue growth of every one of our portfolio companies, whilst leaving individual management teams as much autonomy as necessary.
The innovation and disruption in sport today offers an abundance of problems and opportunities, that we think we are well qualified to identify and solve for sustainable return.
Y11 is informed and led by the amazing changes being driven by data and technology to deliver efficiencies and unlock value.
Our team has decades of experience and track record in running sports and media businesses, through hard-won reputation and relationships.
We are hand-in-hand builders of value, and we like to think that we combine real empathy, and operational excellence in running sport, with a strong background in finance, and capital markets, to deliver exceptional returns for both our companies and investors.
Y11 operates on an 80/20 ratio, where 80% is professional business and discipline, but 20% is passion. If we are not passionate about a project, we will pass, because we believe that the 20% creates an unprecedented amount of value across the 100% of the project. The emotion, the grit, the commitment to succeed, the competitiveness to win.
This is when we see mesmerising results, because the 20% directly impacts the end user experience, and it’s why we secure the loyalty of the athlete, participant, fan, player because they see the passion and commitment we enthuse through the hard work we produce.
A common theme throughout our portfolio of sports businesses is their impact and purpose on health and wellbeing, community, social responsibility and environmental impact.
Sport is much more more than a business and a set of numbers. It matters to people’s lives.
If you are a part of Y11, you will grow through the experiences and values of the organisation , empowered to realise your ambition. Y11 has a growth mentality for its people as well as its investments.
In every good dressing room there is a clear sense of responsibility, capability and trust.
If you are capable of your role within the group, and take responsibility for executing your tasks, whilst believing other colleagues will trust you, it becomes an easy place to thrive.
We are very aware that we are entrusted with our investors’ money, and they must get it back with return. As such, our processes of evaluation, execution, and control allow no compromise, even in a “special” sector like sport.
This does NOT exclude investing for the maximum benefit of all stakeholders and the community. This balance is the Y11 competitive advantage.
Y11 today invests its capital in sports assets that offer together a balanced risk approach across the group, and within each division.
James has a B.Sc. Degree in Sports Science from Loughborough University and a certificate in Macro Economics from the London Business School. James commenced his business career in investment banking with the Royal Bank of Canada.
His investment experience and passion for sport, led him to join Athletes1 in 2004, concentrating on the management of international rugby players. In 2006 he moved to Pro Sports International in London, specialising in superstar rugby and football player representation and commercial advisory with professional football and rugby clubs.
In 2008 James set up his own sports agency, Y11 Sports, in Dubai, most notably consulting on many of Dubai sport assets and their commercial strategies and programmes in football and golf. In 2014 James built multiple sport properties with strategic partners and founded Y11 Sport & Media Limited in 2018.
Nicolas has a M.Sc. Degree in Finance from Sherbrooke University and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) of Canada. He started his career in hedge fund accounting at Citi Hedge Fund Services in Bermuda and was then recruited to open the Bahrain office for Apex Fund Services in 2008.
Nicolas became the Managing Director of Middle East for Apex Fund Services in 2011 and oversaw Apex's expansion across the Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain offices. In 2013, Nicolas became the CFO of Centaur Asset Management, a private equity firm based in Dubai and was involved in the seed funding of Sport Events International Ltd.
After moving back to Canada in 2016, Nicolas joined Sport Events International, a company associated to Y11 Sport & Media Limited.
Y11 have a solid and established partnership with the leading financial institution Navis Capital, with $5bn in assets under management. Navis and its founding partners believe in sport as an asset class, and in the values and abilities of Y11.
“Sport is an interesting asset class. It drives much of the related media and entertainment industries, with increasing cross-over to younger generations and significant demand especially in Asia. We see sport, and its adjacent sectors, as a way to tap into the emerging product market fit of growing global leisure and pastime expenditure, especially in emerging markets.
The opportunity to invest in Y11, a sport & media investment platform based in Asia was a first mover for us as a fund. Investing in sport is large and vast but comes with risk without the right expertise.
We at Navis have invested in James (the Founder and CEO) and the Y11 team to grow the existing portfolio, identify new opportunities and become a success across for all stakeholders involved. Their values mirror our own; teamwork, tenacity, integrity and innovation."
There is no stronger predictor of success than a team in sync. We invest time and resources in building trust, aligning goals and sharing capabilities across the firm.
We are driven by a determined and persistent focus on realizing the potential of the companies we invest in. We are problem solvers who believe challenges can be opportunities and we are ready to commit time and resources on the ground.
We have spent years cultivating valued relationships rooted in trust and transparency and continue to do so by promoting the highest ethical standards amongst our staff and our portfolio company partners.
We practice objective and structured analyses to uncover new ideas and appraisals to drive value creation.
