Seven Seven Six, Alexis Ohanian’s Venture Capital Firm, Acquires College-Focused ONIT

Exclusive: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian's venture capital firm, Seven Seven Six, has acquired ONIT.

Oct 28, 2022; Washington, D.C., USA; Lead founding investor in Angel City FC Alexis Ohanian points to the team crest on his jacket as he participates in a panel discussion at the NWSL Score More for Title IX | Jessica Rapfogel-Imagn Images

Seven Seven Six, Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm, has acquired ONIT, the officially-licensed college sports trading card company. ONIT creates trading cards for thousands of student-athletes on hundreds of collegiate teams. The lineup of schools includes Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, UCLA, and more.

Seven Seven Six has been aggressively investing in women's and emerging sports, with a portfolio that includes Chelsea FC Women’s (WSL), and founding control owner of Angel City FC (NWSL), Los Angeles Volleyball (LOVB), LA Golf Club (TGL & WTGL), and ATHLOS Track and Field.

Why ONIT?

In the most recently completed academic year (2024-25), ONIT made team-specific trading card sets for 212 teams across 67 Division I schools and worked with more than 8,000 student-athletes, including more women’s sports student-athletes than all other trading card companies combined.

“ONIT is a natural fit with Seven Seven Six,” Ohanian said. “It’s an opportunity to create a vehicle for underserved sports to reach their fans through sports cards, a product category I’ve been passionate about since I was a kid,” Ohanian said. “ONIT understands something fundamental about fandom and collecting that others have missed: it’s about community. The trading card hobby is growing fast, and ONIT's opportunity is to bring entirely new collectors into the space - not just serve the ones who already exist - by making collecting more accessible.”

ONIT specializes in team-specific trading card products and brings opportunities to all student-athletes on a participating roster with industry-leading royalties that drive meaningful revenue to athletes and schools. This month, however, ONIT will introduce its first fully mixed retail product with the release of 2026 ONIT Gravity Baseball at Walmart and Best Buy. The set features 100 of this season’s top college baseball players from 10 different universities and marks the debut of ONIT’s ION optichrome print technology.

Who is Joining the ONIT Team?

Former NASCAR and The Athletic executive Evan Parker, who built the content and community
platform Mantel, alongside Ohanian and Brent Montgomery, joins ONIT as CEO.

"This is an incredibly exciting time to join ONIT," Parker said. "With Seven Seven Six's investment, our university partners and the great team we have in place, we can build the next generation of collectors by creating high-quality cards that resonate with passionate fans at an approachable price point. It's a privilege to have the responsibility of being the only company that produces trading cards for many of the athletes we work with. Whether they're winning the Heisman Trophy or suiting up for the scout team, every player's story can be told through collectibles, and we take great pride in treating all of our athletes with the same care and respect."

Parker will remain heavily involved with Mantel alongside Wheelhouse, 776, and Patrick Keane (long-time Mantel advisor and former CEO of Action Network), who is stepping into a larger leadership role. The platform's annual Mantel Hobby Awards will return later this year, with new content series, events, and partnerships also in development.

The emerging space that is college athletics has been growing over the past few years, but it appears that with the acquisition of ONIT, Ohanian and team are putting the college sports side of the hobby into hyperspace.