Playermaker, the manufacturer of the wearable sports performance tracker, has raised $40 million in funding to date, led by Ventura Capital Group, with additional investment by MIG Capital, Pegasus Tech Ventures, and others.
The funding will further extend the London-based company’s global reach to accelerate growth in the consumer space and develop a multi-sport platform to drive its reach beyond soccer, beginning with basketball.
Playermaker’s wearable performance tracking device attaches to an athlete’s shoe to capture technical, tactical, biomechanical, and physical data when in motion; this provides insights and analysis to enable athletes to maximize their skills, monitor injury risk and injury recovery. Due to the position of the tracker on both the left and right shoe,
Playermaker’s device can track technical performance and offer insights due to the position on both the left and right shoe; this enables it to pair surface-level metrics with functional factors such as foot placement/angle, foot velocity, acceleration on hard cuts versus straightaway runs.
Playermaker said its “wearable performance tracker is currently used in over 250 elite, professional and recreational soccer teams, academies, colleges.”
“Our mission is to challenge the disparities in sport, striving to attain fair play and equal opportunity for all by ensuring that everyone can access the knowledge they need to improve their game,” said Guy Aharon, CEO and co-founder, Playermaker. “We are empowering and inspiring boys and girls across the world of sports to stay active, pursue their dreams and be the best they can be regardless of their discipline, location or resources. Ultimately, wherever there is passion and shoes, that’s where we want to be.”
“Playermaker ‘ups the game’ for professional and recreational footballers alike, creating a unique level of deep insight and competitive edge for players in a simple and user-friendly way,” said Mo El Husseiny, Ventura’s managing partner. “We now have the ability to track performance data and provide deep and instant insight far beyond the usual metrics, something that every athlete can benefit from and a vision that we at Ventura are very excited to back.”
Playermaker’s device requires no additional infrastructure or installation, nor WIFI, cell service, or external power to collect and analyze data from a given session. It can also be used indoors and outdoors, differentiating it from GPS systems and making it easily adaptable across various sporting activities.
Photo courtesy Playermaker
