Athlete To Athlete Raises $8M Series A to Scale Youth Sports Mentorship

Athlete To Athlete has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Rally Ventures, with Newbound VC, Scrum Ventures and UpHonest Capital joining the round. The Santa Monica-based platform connects young athletes with current college athletes, and it plans to spend the money expanding youth sports partnerships, strengthening safety protections and reaching more families nationwide.

The numbers behind the deal explain why investors moved. Founded in 2023 by former Division 1 athletes Anthony Waller and Zach Maisus, the company has served more than 35,000 young athletes and has grown more than 100% annually since launch. Its mentor network spans over 300 universities, and Athlete To Athlete expects to facilitate more than 100,000 mentorship sessions in 2026.

The founders met as lifting partners at UCLA and built the company as undergraduates. Waller runs the business as CEO; Maisus serves as COO.

How the product actually works

Athlete To Athlete pairs young athletes with current college athletes in their respective sports through one-on-one virtual mentorship programs lasting 12 or 24 weeks. The programs target confidence, resilience, work ethic and personal habits — skills the company says serve participants during and beyond their athletic careers.

The results pitch to parents is concrete. According to the company, more than 90% of parents report noticeable improvements in their children's confidence after participating in its mentorship programs.

There's a second customer here too: the college athletes. The platform pays them for mentorship work, a business model that only became possible after the NCAA's 2021 name, image and NIL rule changes expanded income opportunities for college athletes. While NIL deals usually bring endorsement contracts for high-profile athletes to mind, Athlete To Athlete lets a much broader population of college athletes earn money by sharing their experience with younger players.

What does this change for the youth sports market?

For practitioners, the deal signals where growth capital is heading: beyond recruiting. Rally Ventures argues mentorship is a bigger opportunity than the college-recruitment pipeline that has absorbed much youth sports spending, because it serves athletes far longer.

"Recruiting matters for a couple of years in high school, while mentorship is useful from middle school until retirement, and Anthony and Zach are the right people to lead this category," said Luke Zaientz, Operating Partner at Rally Ventures.

Rally brings direct operating experience to the table. Zaientz previously served as co-founder, COO and CEO of Reigning Champs, the parent company of college recruiting platform NCSA. Rally Managing Director Justin Kaufenberg co-founded and led youth sports technology platform SportsEngine as CEO.

"We know this market inside and out from NCSA, and the potential here is even bigger," Zaientz said.

Why Rally bet on these founders

Zaientz offered a window into the firm's diligence process — and into how the founders operate. "Anthony sent us a performance update every month for a year and a half before we invested, and the numbers got better every single time," he said. "That's how they run the company: try something, learn from it and get better. We're big believers in what they're building and the opportunity ahead."

For Waller, the mission framing goes well beyond athletic performance. "Our focus is to develop these young athletes as people, helping them build the character, work ethic and belief in themselves that shapes who they become," he said.

"That makes them better on game day, but more importantly, it carries them through the rest of their lives. Every athlete's sport ends eventually, and whether that's at 12 years old or after seven Super Bowl rings, we want them to walk away healthy, confident and ready for whatever comes next," Waller continued. "This funding will allow us to bring safe, meaningful mentorship to far more families."

What comes next

With the $8 million in hand, Athlete To Athlete aims to make structured mentorship more accessible to families while widening paid income opportunities for college athletes across the country. If the 2026 target of 100,000 sessions holds, the company would nearly triple its footprint in short order — and give Rally Ventures a data point that mentorship, not recruiting, is the durable layer of the youth sports economy.