“We LOVB that history will be made in ONE week!” posted the official LOVB handle on social media. League One Volleyball, aka LOVB, which the organization prefers you pronounce as ‘Love’ has been years in the making. On January 8, 2025, the league will take flight after multiple years of fundraising and years of planning.

The first match of the professional volleyball league’s inaugural season will kick off at the Gateway Center Arena in Atlanta. Visiting team LOVB Slat Lake will clash against home side LOVB Atlanta to start the 2025 pro season. After that, six times from six cities will face one another for the next 14 weeks to crown the inaugural LOVB champion. However, this $160 million league would be impossible to launch unless many investors believed in the vision.

The investors who helped the league become a reality

LOVB had a grand concept of developing the sport, but starting an entire league from scratch is not a cheap affair. So the organization pitched its concept to investors in their Series A funding run in September 2022. Impressed with their vision, League One immediately attracted funding from two sporting icons, Billie Jean King and Kevin Durant.

The woman who once said: “You have to see it to be it. Be bold if you are going to make an error make a doozy. And if you can see it, you can be it,” saw the league’s impressive potential. After raising $16.75 million in Series A, the organization continued to attract angel investors to its cause. LOVB volleyball’s Series B funding the following year was an even bigger success.

More of the sports and entertainment world’s icons such as Olympic skiing gold medalist Lindsey Vonn, NBA All-Star Jayson Tatum, comedian, and actor Amy Schumer, WNBA MVP Candace Parker, and others, contributed to raising $35 million for the league. “This is the only way to build a sustainable and successful league in 2023,” said co-founder and CEO Katlyn Gao.

“If the excitement from some of the most well-known and admired trailblazers across sports, entertainment, consumer, and business in our latest round is any indication, it’s clear, LOVB is onto something big,” the CEO added. And she had presumed correctly, as LOBV volleyball earned its biggest fund injection in November last year.

On Thursday, November 21, 2024, League One earned a whopping $100 million investment from Atwater Capital, a women-founded private equity firm. Atwater Capital is the latest in a line of entities such as Ares and Left Lane Capital, who have also invested in the league. Atwater Capital’s investment took LOVB’s total raised funds to $160 million.

However, all this money isn’t solely going to the pro league.

LOVB is much more than just a professional volleyball league

While the pro league is LOVB’s flagship project, there is more to this organization, whose goal remains to foster talents throughout their volleyball journey. “This is volleyball’s era,” Katlyn Gao said in 2023. LOVB wants to help as many of the 38 million current and former volleyball players (as per The Athletic) in the United States as they can.

While former players may find various roles in helping the league expand, League One Volleyball hopes to be a pivotal part in helping young talent blossom into high school, college, and finally pros. “The initial idea behind LOVB was to introduce a youth-to-pro ecosystem approach from the onset,” explained co-founder Gao.

“What we’ve been able to achieve with LOVB is the opportunity to champion athletes throughout their entire volleyball journey,” she added. However, setting this dream in motion wouldn’t have been possible for LOVB, if not for the millions of dollars and the confidence the investors showed in the League’s vision.

While some may have hesitated to pledge to the cause, the record-breaking success of college volleyball throughout 2023 and 2024 has emboldened the cause. LOVB is not the second pro league in the US alongside the Professional Volleyball Federations.

It seems the future is bright for women’s professional volleyball!