Fancam, a South African sports-tech startup, is among the six selected startups to take part in the Stadia Ventures’ Accelerator programme.
Located in St Louis USA, Stadia Ventures helps sports and e-sports startups develop, by offering them equity investment of up to US$100,000, mentorship and connections to top sports business executives in the United States.
The early-stage venture capital firm has its focus on sports and e-sports startups, with investments in 30 companies since 2015.
South Africa‘s Fancam was chosen alongside five other companies to take part in the Spring 2019 cohort of the accelerator program, which is the eight edition. Fancam has developed an analytics platform that uses ultra-resolution imagery and computer vision to let sports teams apply demographic data from pictures to increase their sponsorship retention. It also provides a better in-stadium fan experience.
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During the 14 weeks programme, each team will fly to St. Louis every other week for three-day sessions, featuring executive-level mentorship, top tier guest speakers from across the sports and e-sports industries, and networking sessions with the St. Louis business, investor, sports and e-sports communities.
“Every six months, we begin our search yet again for the best sports and e-sports startups in the world, and this spring, we were simply blown away by the breadth and depth of quality in the applicants,” said Tim Hayden, Co-founder and Managing director of Stadia Ventures.
“Because of that, we had the most competitive selection process yet. So, the fact that these six remain today truly speaks to their previous traction and future potential.”
Startups from more than 40 countries applied for the accelerator, with 10 finalists taking part in a pitch day in St. Louis in late January prior to the selection of the final six. The other companies taking part are Israeli cognitive training platform, Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE), and US-based companies; Boost Technology, GoWild, Pledge It, and WearableX.
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