Cathie Wood’s ARK makes its first lead investment in startup Lucra — and it isn’t AI

Source: TechCrunch

Lucra’s platform

Lucra has built a software platform that turns corporate loyalty programs into interactive, esports‑style events—tournaments where customers can compete, bet, and win cash or company giveaways. Its customers include Five Iron Golf, Chess Kings, and Dave & Busters.

Series B financing

• Amount raised: $20 million
• Lead investor: ARK Invest Venture Fund
• Other participants: Alumni Ventures, Astralis Capital, Harlo Equity Partners, Simplex Ventures, SeventySix Capital, and WTI

Why ARK has never led a startup deal before

ARK Invest Venture Fund is not a typical venture‑capital fund. It is an SEC‑regulated interval (closed‑end) fund, allowing anyone to invest with as little as $500, but shares are not traded on a public exchange and can only be redeemed on specific quarterly dates. Details on the repurchase calendar are available here.

Fund director of research Nick Grous is known to be a “tough sell,” requiring startups to convince him enough to advocate for a lead position.

Past experience with Skillz

ARK’s reticence stemmed from a previous investment in Skillz, a public company that operated in a similar space but later faced legal troubles and a steep decline. Grous explained:

“We had actually owned a company called Skillz, which kind of operated in this space. It didn’t work out well for us and many other investors.”

The key difference, according to ARK, is that Lucra is a B2B platform that provides interactive esports experiences as a loyalty tool, rather than licensing and running games directly to consumers.

How Lucra secured the lead investment

• ARK had already participated in Lucra’s Series A round, giving the fund familiarity with the business model, trajectory, and CEO Dylan Robbins.
• The fund maintains quarterly conference calls with portfolio companies, mirroring public‑company reporting cycles.
• During due‑diligence calls, Robbins addressed concerns stemming from Skillz’s failures, demonstrating strong conviction and a clear path forward.
• Lucra’s financials were promising, and the opportunity aligned with ARK’s expertise in sports‑betting and gamification, not just AI.

ARK’s broader portfolio and AI focus

The ARK Invest Venture Fund holds stakes in companies such as Epic Games, Kalshi, Discord, OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, Grok, and Perplexity. While the fund is heavily invested in AI, Wood emphasized that the firm seeks “neglected” areas beyond the AI hype:

“We are all over AI, just like everyone else, because it is a massive revolution. But in the process, a lot of companies are being neglected. Spotting those opportunities is our advantage.”

Image credit: ARK Invest