SportAI, a B2B sports activities know-how firm utilizing AI to reinforce sports activities approach teaching, commentary and evaluation, has raised a €1.6 million seed funding spherical led by early-stage investor Skyfall Ventures.
Different members embrace Norwegian pension fund MP Pensjon; Dekel Valtzer (ex-pro tennis participant and AI startup founder); and Sverre Munck (ex-EVP at Schibsted). Magnus Carlsen, the very best ranked chess participant of all time, is a SportAI advisor and investor of their pre-seed spherical.
This seed funding spherical will probably be used to scale SportAI’s know-how growth, increase the group and improve market penetration. The corporate will announce quickly its first business contract signed in June 2024.
Actual-time approach evaluation
SportAI analyses gamers’ approach in real-time, resembling their golf, tennis or padel swing, earlier than delivering on the spot, personalised suggestions for bettering efficiency (demo right here). Utilizing machine studying, pc imaginative and prescient and biometric know-how, a person’s approach may be immediately in comparison with hundreds of different gamers, together with high sporting professionals, with goal and exact written and visible evaluation.
As a platform, SportAI gives automated data-based evaluation to thousands and thousands of gamers, a service sometimes solely inexpensive for skilled gamers with entry to efficiency analysts. Broadcasters may also use the know-how to complement their reside sporting commentary, enhancing fan expertise with on the spot approach evaluation, whereas gear manufacturers can use it for product suggestions based mostly on a participant’s private approach.
The Oslo-headquartered firm was co-founded in late 2023 by ex-NCAA tennis participant Lauren Pedersen (CEO), Felipe Longé (CTO) and Andreas Thome (Board Chairman, ex-CEO of Play Magnus) alongside tech-startup heavyweights Espen Agdestein (Board member), and Trond Kittelsen (Head of Industrial and tennis app founder).
Lauren Pedersen, CEO and co-founder of SportAI, commented: “We’re thrilled to have Skyfall Ventures lead our seed spherical, which underscores the rising confidence in SportAI’s potential to disrupt the sports activities trade with our state-of-the-art know-how. This funding will allow us to speed up the event of our AI-driven options and increase our attain throughout the sports activities trade. We’re dedicated to harnessing the ability of AI to democratise entry to high-quality sports activities information and obtain sports activities excellence.”
{Hardware} agnostic
SportAI is {hardware} agnostic, able to analysing video from cell phones, cameras mounted at courts or enjoying arenas, and broadcast feeds. The know-how makes approach evaluation scalable, goal, and inexpensive for the primary time. Beforehand, video evaluation required handbook tagging by coaches utilizing particular {hardware}, which restricted scalability and longevity.
By partnering with main sports activities organisations and automating evaluation from any video, SportAI can attain broad audiences and combine approach evaluation into coaching for professionals, leisure gamers and followers. This democratises entry to high-quality sporting evaluation for gamers of all ranges worldwide.
Jon Kåre Stene, Associate and Co-Founding father of Skyfall Ventures, added: “Skyfall Ventures is proud to assist SportAI of their mission to make world-class experience accessible to all. Like OpenAI’s ambition to make intelligence plentiful and accessible, SportAI is working to make sure that everyone has entry to the most effective sports activities coaching on the planet. SportAI’s progressive method and cutting-edge options align completely with our give attention to investing in high-growth know-how startups. We’re excited to contribute to their journey and assist them obtain substantial market success.”
