New technology from startup ventures is transforming the sports industry. The mission of this series is to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story. Feel free to contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for this series.
Company name: Data61
Spokesperson: Pete Field, Data61 Software Engineer and Head of Doarama
Headquarters: Sydney, Australia
1. Elevator pitch
Sports fans are about to get a whole new way of experiencing the upcoming Tour de France and select endurance sports at the Rio 2016 Olympics through Doarama.
Doarama, a start-up out of CSIRO’s Data61 group, allows spectators to access customised 3D interactive map visualisations of live sporting routes, and follow the race in real time.
The Doarama website is free to use, works on desktop and mobile (iPhone and Android) devices and gives sport enthusiasts the opportunity to experience the walk, run, hike, rock climb, paraglide, cycle or ski route, using its GPS route visualisations.
2. Problem and solution
Until now we’ve ‘made do’ with a 2D overhead map and a separate terrain profile, but television and 2D maps just don’t compare – with Doarama, it’s visceral. The 3D maps are changing how we experienced endurance events, either as a spectator or an athlete.
3D fly-through maps were only available to large media broadcasters, and even then, these maps were limited to a single point-of-view, and only made available for the largest races. Now fans are able to interact with the maps by controlling how they view the route in a 3D virtual world. With Doarama, sport routes can be made available online, and it is completely interactive.
3. Market
Doarama targets atheletes and adventurers, people who love the outdoors. The diversity of sports we’ve seen always amazes us. We have also seen interest from event organizers who are using Doarama for the maps of their race courses. Last weekend two big ultra-marathon events in Europe used Doarama maps, and every week we’re seeing more and more races added.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
As a start-up, we do see a few great business opportunities and we’ll have to talk about that in the future when we’ve had a chance to dig into it a little bit further.
5. Management Team
We’re a really small team. I (Pete) head up the project after Chris Cooper (the original creator) went to work for another local start-up. Chris still works part-time and Craig Sketchley also works on Doarama part-time while being the founder of another start-up and getting his masters in Comp-Sci. Along with all of us being Software Engineers, we’re also avid athletes. I’m from Whistler, BC, so clearly into the outdoor thing, and Craig spent a few seasons skiing in Colorado. Chris created Doarama to track his own bike rides.
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
Originally launched in 2013, the revamped Doarama platform has seen great uptake with approximately 400 per cent user growth over the last three months by offering a new, engaging way to gain a deeper understanding of the environment and obstacles that athletes are tackling.
Paragliders and ultramarathon races in Italy, France and California and RedBull XAlps Competition have been early adopters. We’re expanding into more sports including base-jumping competitions. We’re very excited to see new ways people are using Doarama.
Other key features include:
- Sharing experiences on social media
- The ability for anybody to create their own 3D maps
- The ability for content providers to embed Doarama into their web services
- Viewing multiple GPS tracks at once
- Syncronising video, photos and annotations
- Immersive virtual reality headset support
- Exploring other people’s visualisations