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The co-CEO and president of Ariel Investments is now targeting $1 billion for Project Level, the Chicago firm's first fund dedicated to women's sports, according to people familiar with the matter. The fund closed its first $250 million in February. A second close is expected in the second quarter of this year.
Hobson founded Project Level in 2025, anchoring the effort with the conviction that women's sports represent one of the most undervalued growth opportunities in the global sports economy. She has described the sector as "the small caps of sports," and the analogy is deliberate. Her firm built its reputation spotting overlooked value before the crowd arrived.
At $1 billion, Project Level would have no peers. It already stands alongside Monarch Collective's $250 million fund as one of the largest pools of capital dedicated exclusively to women's sports. A successful raise at the billion-dollar mark puts it in a category of its own.
Jason Wright, the former NFL running back who served as president of the Washington Commanders from 2020 to 2024, is managing partner and head of investments. The fund's scope is deliberately broad: teams, leagues, youth sports and sports-adjacent businesses are all in scope. That last category, youth sports, is where institutional capital has been slowest to arrive on the women's and girls' side, and its inclusion signals a longer-term thesis about building the full pipeline rather than just betting on headline franchises.
Ariel, which manages $14.3 billion in assets, is not using a placement agent for the raise. The firm declined to comment.
The macro backdrop is working in Hobson's favor. NWSL team values are up 77% since 2024. The league's 16 clubs are collectively worth $2.6 billion, and five have more than doubled in value over that span. U.S. women's sports revenue grew 4.5 times between 2022 and 2024 and is projected to reach $2.5 billion in rightsholder value by 2030, according to McKinsey.
Hobson already has skin in the game beyond the fund. She is an investor in the Denver Broncos and serves as alternate governor of Denver Summit, the NWSL's 16th expansion franchise and one of Project Level's anchor investments alongside League One Volleyball.
The momentum is showing up across the space. Monarch Collective, led by Kara Nortman and Jasmine Robinson, initially targeted $100 million for its debut fund and closed at $150 million in 2023. Investor appetite pushed the firm to reopen Fund I, which reached $250 million last year. "We were encouraged by our largest LPs to reopen the fund given the market growth," Jasmine Robinson, Monarch's managing partner and co-founder, said at the time. Many existing investors doubled their commitments when the fund reopened.
What Hobson is building with Project Level is bigger in ambition than any single team stake or league deal. If the fund reaches its target, it would mark a genuine shift in how institutional money moves through women's sports, from professional franchises all the way down to the youth game where the next generation of athletes and fans is being shaped right now.
