PlayerData is an Edinburgh-based startup that aims to transform the way amateur and professional sports teams train through software, analytics, gamification, and wearable technology.
Raised £1.6M
Recently, the company has raised $2.3 million (approx £1.6 million) from Hiro Capital, a London/Luxembourg VC fund investing across Games, Esports, Streaming, and Digital Sports. Sir Terry Leahy, former CEO of Tesco, a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer, also participated in the round
The company will use the funding to supercharge PlayerData’s growth across multiple sports and to expand internationally.
Hiro Capital’s 4th DSports investment
Notably, the Edinburgh-based startup is Hiro Capital’s 4th DSports and connected Fitness investment, joining Zwift, FitXR, and NURVV, alongside 8 Games innovators across the UK, USA, and Europe.
Founded by Roy Hotrabhvanon and Hayden Ball, PlayerData uses software tracking and wearable technology to give grass-roots and professional sports teams feedback on their training.
It’s worth noting that, Roy Hotrabhvanon is a former international archer who narrowly missed out on selection for the Rio Olympics in 2016 for the Thailand national team. Hayden Ball, is a CompSci expert in firmware and cloud infrastructure who designed, built, and launched a distributed SaaS solution for the Edinburgh Fringe.
Replay key moments
The UK company’s AI algorithms has the ability to predict player injuries even before they happen. Also, it’s tools allow coaches to replay key moments from the game, modelling different outcomes based on player positioning.
The company has already captured more than 10,000 team sessions and >50 million meters of athlete play in UK grass-roots Soccer and Rugby in their first year live.
On the Hiro investment, Roy said – “Our mission is to bring fine grained data and insight to clubs across team sports, helping them supercharge their game-making, improve player performance, and avoid injury. We leverage our platform and big data to generate biometric insights applicable at any level – from grassroots to the Premier League. Due to the team network effect, the PlayerData community is fast-growing across the U.K. and overseas. Our ultimate goal is to implement cutting-edge insights from pioneering wearables that are applicable to any team in any discipline at any level. Hiro Capital as an investment partner, shares this commitment to our mission. It’s great to have Cherry, Luke and Ian’s belief, counsel and expertise to help us further our vision.”
Cherry Freeman, co-founding Partner at Hiro says: “PlayerData ticks all of our key boxes: a huge TAM with over 3m grass-roots clubs; a deep moat built on shared player data, machine learning and highly actionable predictive algorithms; compelling customer network effects; and a really impressive yet humble founding team. We are delighted to be leading this investment round in this exciting DSports innovator”
Luke Alvarez, Managing Partner at Hiro says: “In a year when lockdown accelerated digital adoption and kept us all out of the gym, companies like Nurvv, FitXR, Zwift and Peloton helped people stay fit, healthy, and biomechanically self-aware. 2020 super-charged connected fitness and PlayerData is our latest exciting investment in this accelerating macro trend.”
The post This Edinburgh wearable tech startup got £1.6M funding from former Tesco boss to predict sports injuries appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).
