Pro Padel League raises $15 million to fuel US expansion

Rick Schnall led Pro Padel League’s $15 million Series A as the circuit tried to turn early momentum into a larger U.S. business. The league said the capital would help launch a new developmental league and support expansion in a market where padel courts have been spreading quickly.

Pro Padel League had already raised a $10 million seed round led by Left Lane Capital, with Kactus Capital, Gary Vaynerchuk, Epic Padel and the family office of H.I.G. Capital founder Tony Tamer also backing the league. At that stage, the league said it was preparing for its second full season in 2025, a sign that the money was being used to build more than a one-off exhibition circuit.

By January, the league described itself as the world’s top professional padel league, with 10 teams across the United States, Canada and Mexico and male and female players on its rosters. That same month, Pro Padel League and Frédérique Constant announced an official timepiece partnership. Frédérique Constant said it was the brand’s first professional sports sponsorship and that the deal would include a limited-edition PPL-branded watch.

The funding lands against a fast-moving backdrop for the sport in the United States. One estimate put publicly accessible padel courts at about 227 three years ago and nearly 1,000 today, while another said the country had roughly 180 courts in 2022 and 454 by the end of 2023. Padel also crossed 1 million U.S. players by April 2026, a scale that has made the sport more attractive to investors looking for the next breakout racket property.

Pro Padel League has also pushed into media. The league added a 2026 broadcast partnership with USA Sports that placed five championship matches on CNBC, extending the commercial case for a property that is still early in its U.S. buildout. With clubs, players and sponsors now tied to a growing calendar, the Series A became less about a splashy raise than a test of whether padel can support a durable American league structure.