Stadia Ventures, the St. Louis-based sports business accelerator, has announced the companies selected for its Spring 2017 Cohort and an investment of up to $100,000 in exchange for an undisclosed equity stake.
The accelerator received nearly 200 applications from around the world and 130 senior sports and business executives — including a SportTechie representative — served as judges, narrowing the field to five sports startups that joined Stadia’s portfolio:
- Kadho Sports (Irvine, Calif.) — created cognitive training tools for athletes based on the latest in neuroscience to help athletes in on-field decision-making. Clients include those in the NCAA and MLB.
- Pico.Buzz (Haifa, Israel and St. Louis) — uses fans’ data and analyzes it to provide new revenue channels for sports teams, music artists, venues and more.
- RC21X (Coraopolis, Penn.) — a human performance assessment tool that uses video games to improve on-field performance and monitor performance enhancement programs. Clients include more than 600 former NFL athletes through the company’s work with the NFL Concussion Settlement.
- Reely (Sant Monica, Calif.) — platform that watches sports like a human and uses computer vision and deep learning AI to detect highlights. Pilot clients include Sky Sports, EverSport Media, Yokal Sports, Major League Lacrosse and RMN Wrestling.
- VNTANA (Los Angeles) — social augmented reality company empowering brands through realistic holographic experiences. Clients include Nike, NFL Hall of Fame & Museum, Pepsi, Lexus and Mercedes.
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The companies will be immersed in Stadia’s business development accelerator up until a Demo Day in June.
“We’re very excited about this investment and the partnership opportunities it brings,” RC21X CEO Clarence Carlos said in a statement. “Stadia has assembled an impressive portfolio over the years. The mentoring and coaching that comes with this selection is going to help us to be a better performing company for our investors and for our customers.
“With the coaching and support we get through this program, we’re going to be able to help a lot of people. Our tools will allow athletes and their families to have unprecedented access to objective data on their brain performance. Armed with that data, they can make better decisions regarding their brain health.”