A seed fundraising round of €1.6 million has been raised by SportAI, a B2B sports technology startup that uses AI to improve sports technique coaching, commentary, and analysis. Early-stage investor Skyfall Ventures led the round.
Sverre Munck (former EVP at Schibsted), Dekel Valtzer (former professional tennis player and creator of an AI firm), and MP Pensjon (a pension fund in Norway) are among the other attendees. The all-time greatest chess player, Magnus Carlsen, is an investor and advisor for SportAI in their pre-seed round.
This seed fundraising round aims to grow the team, penetrate more markets, and accelerate SportAI’s technological growth. In June 2024, the business signed its first commercial contract, which it will soon reveal.
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Analysis of real-time techniques
SportAI provides immediate, individualized feedback for better performance by analyzing players’ technique in real-time, such as their padel, tennis, or golf swing (demo here). An individual’s approach may be quickly compared to that of thousands of other players, including elite athletes, using machine learning, computer vision, and biometric technologies. This allows for accurate and unbiased textual and visual critique.
SportAI is a platform that provides millions of players with automated data-based analysis; normally, this kind of service is only accessible to professional players who can afford to hire performance analysts. Equipment manufacturers can use the technology to offer products based on a player’s technique, and broadcasters can utilize it to improve the audience experience via instantaneous technique analysis during live sporting events.
In late 2023, tech-startup heavyweights Trond Kittelsen (founder of the tennis app) and Espen Agdestein (Board member) joined forces with former NCAA tennis player Lauren Pedersen (CEO), Felipe Longé (CTO), and Andreas Thome (Board Chairman, former Play Magnus CEO) to form the Oslo-based company.
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“We are thrilled to have Skyfall Ventures lead our seed round, which underscores the growing confidence in SportAI’s potential to disrupt the sports industry with our state-of-the-art technology,” said Lauren Pedersen, CEO and co-founder of SportAI. With the help of this funding, we will be able to develop our AI-driven solutions more quickly and reach a wider audience in the sports sector. We aim to attain sports excellence by democratizing access to top-notch sports data by utilizing artificial intelligence.
Regardless of the hardware
SportAI can analyze video from broadcast feeds, mobile phones, and cameras installed at courts or sports arenas without regard to technology. For the first time, technique analysis is scalable, objective, and reasonably priced thanks to technology. Video analysis used to require coaches to manually tag videos using specialized apparatus, which hampered its scalability and lifespan.
SportAI can reach large audiences and include technique analysis in training for professionals, amateur athletes, and spectators by collaborating with significant sports organizations and automating analysis from any video. This gives athletes everywhere, regardless of skill level, more affordable access to superior sports analysis.
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“Skyfall Ventures is proud to support SportAI in their mission to make world-class expertise accessible to all,” said Jon Kåre Stene, partner and co-founder of the company. SportAI is working to ensure everyone can access the best sports training available worldwide, much like OpenAI’s goal to make intelligence abundant and accessible. SportAI’s creative thinking and state-of-the-art technologies are a wonderful fit with our emphasis on funding rapidly expanding technology firms. We can’t wait to support them on their path and see them have significant commercial success.
