Elixirr is delighted to announce former South African rugby captain turned entrepreneur Bob Skinstad has joined as Partner. 

Bob has spent the past 20 years of his career working across different industries, including advertising, media, sports and technology. After founding a hospitality business, and later selling it, he joined venture capital firm Knife Capital in 2015 where he founded the UK partnership, as well as co-founded the Section 12J entrepreneurs fund, KNF Ventures (fund I & II). 

“The beauty of working in a VC firm and later a family office with a private equity portfolio is that I was exposed to all kinds of companies, mostly unrelated to sports,” he says. “While sport, and the business side of it, has always been of great interest to me and I have made personal investments in the space, this enabled me to build out my skillset and expertise outside of it.” 

As a Partner at Elixirr Bob will utilise his experience at the board and advisory level, and his unique background, to support business development and marketing, and to strengthen and build out Elixirr’s services and network in the sport and media industries, and beyond.  

“One of the fastest-growing areas in the sports business right now is private equity in sport,” Bob says.

“We’re seeing the advent and growth of multi-club portfolios and huge investment in sport from all around the world and that has to be done at a high-quality level, which Elixirr and its brands have the expertise to support. We’ve also seen the proliferation of new media forms over the past 20 years – technology presents a whole new opportunity for how sports and related organisations connect teams, fans and sponsors around the world. It’s an incredible nexus to be at and there is huge opportunity in this space, which I look forward to being a part of at Elixirr.” 

Bob played rugby for the South Africa Springboks from 1997-2007, serving as captain and was part of the winning 2007 Rugby World Cup team. The experiences and skills developed during his professional sporting career have been the foundation for his business success, he says.  

“The habits and traits you develop in sports are second to none,” he says. “The discipline, the desire to succeed, honing your ability, strategic intent, teamwork – they’re all fantastic and you can see a place for them in every professional setting. I’m extremely passionate about the reintegration of athletes into the business world. Post-career can be tough, but athletes are usually hard working and resilient. If that’s true, then at their core they understand the mentality of getting things done and what it takes to be successful both individually and collectively.” 

Stephen Newton, Founder and CEO, says 

“Bob brings with him an extremely unique combined skillset and background. It’s evident that the qualities which enabled him to be such a successful athlete and team leader have been carried over into his entrepreneurial endeavours. He comes with expertise and a strong network in industries where we are seeing a lot of growth and change, and as a client-led business, we continuously seek to build out areas of the business where we are seeing demand. Bob’s presence will support this, and I look forward to seeing the impact he has as part of the partner team.”  

Learn more about Elixirr’s partner team:

Meet the team