Symone Graham
Nov 25, 2025
Story Highlights:
Muhsin Muhammad's Axum Capital Partners launched a $300 million fund.
The former Carolina Panthers receiver founded Axum in 2008.
Axum focuses on health and wellness food and beverage investments.
Charlotte’s startup community heard a rare play-by-play of how Muhsin Muhammad built a private equity firm from his post-NFL pivot.
Muhammad — the ex-Carolina Panthers wide receiver turned co-founder and managing partner of Axum Capital Partners — outlined his investment philosophy at the annual Venture 135 conference on Nov. 20. He also described how his firm has evolved during a wide-ranging discussion at the event. The session was held at the Foundation For The Carolinas and moderated by RevTech Labs’ co-founder Dan Roselli.
Muhammad traced his path from the NFL to private equity, citing early exposure to investors such as Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott, whose Champion Ventures fund offered his first look at the sector. That paved the way for a strategy he refined throughout his 14-year football career.
“I realized that at the end of my career that I was this entrepreneur sort of trapped in this athlete’s body,” he said during the conference.
After returning to Charlotte in 2008, he leaned on local connections to raise Axum’s first fund, targeting sectors aligned with macroeconomic trends. Early investments centered on restaurants positioned for dual-income households and strong franchise potential. Axum doubled the size of two portfolio companies before navigating a Covid-era restructuring that he described as both challenging and instructive.
“It was the best learning experience,” he said, noting the team ultimately preserved jobs and delivered returns for investors.
Muhammad emphasized the parallels between professional sports and dealmaking.
“We’re analysts, right? I think to a certain degree, we analyze our sectors, we analyze our opponents,” he said.
He compared Axum’s operating experts and transaction specialists to the specialized roles he once played alongside teammates like Jake Delhomme and Julius Peppers.
Today, Axum is concentrated on health and wellness, an area Muhammad believes reflects shifting consumer behavior. His team is seeing “a lot around healthy products, healthy services, consumer goods, functional beverages and functional foods,” he said.
Deal flow comes both through traditional channels and through cultural events designed with athlete limited partners in mind — an ecosystem built with partners including former NBA player Derrick Brown and Stephen Curry’s 7K creative consultancy firm.
Axum, founded in 2008, is deepening that strategy. The firm launched a $300 million fund in September to accelerate investments in health- and wellness-focused food and beverage companies.
Axum’s latest fund launch follows previous challenges with some of its restaurant holdings. Charlotte-based Wild Wing Café, owned by Axum, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2023 after closing multiple locations. Its restructuring has faced setbacks, with the U.S. Bankruptcy Administrator for the Western District of North Carolina filing a motion in April 2024 to either convert the case to Chapter 7 liquidation or dismiss it in the best interest of creditors.
Another Axum portfolio company, Back Yard Burgers, sought Chapter 11 protection in June 2023 after shutting down its Charlotte-area restaurants. The chain has since made progress, with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina approving its reorganization plan in October 2024. It took effect Dec. 1 of last year.
Muhammad noted that while athletes may be attractive prospects for fundraising, they expect meaningful involvement.
“Athletes more often want to leverage who they are, to add value, and they want to be a part of the story,” he said.
He also spoke about the formative role Charlotte has played in his career and why he chose to build Axum in the region. He highlighted the city’s growth, talent pipeline and transportation access, calling the Southeast “one of the hottest areas to build a business, start a business and relocate your business.”
Muhammad also gave advice for founders heading into 2026, pointing to rising labor and commodity costs and the need for sharper focus amid economic uncertainty. He was direct about the importance of adapting to technology shifts.
“I think that you're foolish if you don't incorporate AI into your business in some kind of way,” he said.
For Muhammad, success in investing or football still hinges on systems, discipline and surrounding himself with the right people.
“You have to be great at one thing before you're great at everything,” he said.