Brodie Rec League, a recreational basketball league known for bringing a pro-sports experience to amateur athletes, has raised a $3.6 million seed round led by Lerer Hippeau, based in New York City, and Golden Ventures, based in Toronto, Brodie announced today. The Toronto-based company aims to expand into four new U.S. markets: Atlanta, Long Island, New Jersey and Seattle.

Connor Renton, 29, Brodie’s founder and CEO, says the company is tapping into a growing desire for human connection. It recently launched its first gathering place in Burlington, Ontario, just outside of Toronto, which he likens to a clubhouse.

“People are looking for real-life experiences,” he said. “In sports, we have competition, community, culture and continuity. You show up on this day—it’s the same every single week, and you can look forward to something. It’s an anchor for people.”

Amid a global loneliness epidemic, more adults are joining recreational sports leagues, running clubs, and related activities to get out of the house and meet new friends. Twenty-four percent of adults said they were likely to participate in a summer recreational sports league in 2025, four percentage points higher than in 2023, according to a survey by the opinion-research firm Civic Science.

Renton founded Brodie as a side project in 2019, while working at a bank. He saw a gap between the experiences offered at traditional recreational leagues and the organized sports he participated in while growing up. Brodie, which just began its winter season registration, says it currently serves more than 50,000 athletes and 50,000 additional fans at 35 locations in 20 cities, running more than 600 games a week. It has an extensive in-house marketing operation, which has used organic content to generate more than 1 billion views across social platforms. All of its video is livestreamed.

Brodie offers 12-week sessions, in which amateur athletes across six skill divisions, such as first-time players and former collegiate and professional athletes. Once enrolled, players receive custom uniforms and compete in filmed games that offer post-game highlights and social media content. There are also All-Star games, Culture Cup events, fan nights and championship celebrations. Brodie recently updated a proprietary app that combines AI-powered performance tracking, career statistics, badges, player archetypes, leaderboards, team chats and a social feed into one platform.

“People say their startup makes the world a better place, but not a lot of startups can actually prove that, and I think with Brodie you can,” Renton said. “People have met their best friends, lost weight, and gotten out of depression, because they’re able to just sign up for an experience that’s super seamless, put their phone down, and have a good sweat and a laugh for an hour and a half, and then hang out in a basketball gym. Just for that hour and a half every week, it’s a bit of an escape.”

Investors said they backed the startup with early-stage funding as consumers seek real-life experiences and to participate in adult sports.

“It’s not surprising that Brodie has grown so quickly -- the team, which has executed extremely well, has correctly identified a huge societal gap around real-life experiences right now,” Ben Lerer, Managing Partner at Lerer Hippeau , said in a statement. “ Attracting users digitally is one thing, but hooking them offline is another thing entirely. Brodie’s done both.” Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio includes allbirds, Axios, cotopaxi, Glossier and Venmo.

“A game night in one of their gyms has packed courts, engaged players, and immense energy for recreational competition,” said Ameet Shah, Partner at Golden Ventures , in a statement. “ The opportunity in adult sports has been visible for a long time. The difficult part is building an experience people become ingrained in. Connor and the team are aiming to do both. Brodie is building from Toronto, with real ambition beyond it. We’re proud to lead the company’s seed round and partner with the team as they bring that experience to more players across North America.” Golden Ventures has invested in startups including Biossil, Rebel and Waabi.

Lavese Jones, 40, a father of three who works in the warehouse division at Pepsi, joined during the Chicago league’s inaugural season in the summer of 2024 and plays on a team called the Young O.G.s (short for “Old Guys”), which has won three consecutive championships. Jones said Brodie practices and games are the highlight of his week. “I love the community and brotherhood that it has allowed me to build and continue to build,” he said.

Jones formerly played for East-West University in college and on hometown, semi-pro teams in Chicago. He is now he league’s all-time leading scorer in Chicago, the first to reach 1,000 points. “Age is only an indicator,” he says. “You can be young at heart and keep competing.”

Jones is so enthusiastic he has started his own Instagram page to help promote Brodie and his team. “I love what it has done for the city of Chicago and myself,” he said. “It just gives me a reason to continue to play hoops. I love playing competitive sports.”

Seeing that many athletes wanted to hang out together off the court, Brodie plans events such as community nights and an NBA jersey night to bring them together.

Renton believes the demand for organized sports activities like Brodie will only grow in the future.

“As AI takes more and more jobs, people are going to need to have these types of things to go to, because otherwise they just won’t have it, ever,” he said.