After two successful cohorts, the sports tech powerhouse has opened applications for its third accelerator batch.
Berlin, Germany, April 2019 – Octavian Cosma and Alex Palaghita have always been avid sports fans. But it was only in 2017 that they’ve realized they could turn their passion into a business. They’ve decided to combine their work experience and love for sports to create FanAxn, a startup that engages sports fans like themselves with free-to-play sports betting games. Encouraged by early traction, the founders started looking for ways to accelerate their business. And that’s how they came across leAD.
“Being focused around sports, we’ve looked at several accelerators actually. At the time, leAD was the only one centered around sports with an outstanding list of well-connected mentors and shareholders,” says Octavian Cosma, FanAxn Co-Founder & CEO. “It was a no brainer for us.”
The leAD Sports Accelerator program—inspired by Adi Dassler, the founding father of sportswear giant Adidas—targets innovative solutions in three fields of sports technology. These verticals are connected athletes, derivative markets, and fan engagement. The latter is Cosma and Palaghita’s focus. The duo applied to join the prestigious Accelerator program in Berlin and, after a rigorous selection process, was selected to join leAD’s second cohort.
Only two percent of the applicants made it into the program that year. Excited to take on this unique opportunity, Cosma and Palaghita headed to Berlin, the heart of Europe’s thriving and vibrant startup ecosystem, to join the program.
“We met through the course of the program around 40, 50 people—I would say—which otherwise it’d have taken us months, years to meet. Most of them are in high-level positions in different companies centered around sports so it’s not always easy to have access to those people,” says Cosma. “This sped up our development in terms of strategy, target markets, competition outlook. It helped us shape our business, making the program really worthwhile,” Cosma concludes.
Now, leAD is looking for remarkable early stage sports startups from around the globe to join the 2019 edition of the program. Besides tapping into leAD’s network of investors, partners and mentors—consisting of a unique mix of top-notch sports business veterans, successful founders, CEOs, VCs, and tech experts—founders are coached in topics such as business, investment, finance, leadership, and pitching, to name a few, during the program. According to Christoph Sonnen, leAD Co-Founder & CEO and ADvantage Partner, leAD is one of the few programs that not only provides smart investment, meaning access to capital, network, and mentorship but also places a strong focus on founder development.
“I like to remind our team why we started leAD. Why we work hard to build this strong network and bring the best in the game across all industries. To us, it’s all about the founders, the startups,” says Christoph Sonnen, leAD Co-Founder & CEO, ADvantage Partner. “We want to see our founders growing, pushing barriers, innovating, and taking their startups to the next level. We are not only fueled by our passion for sports but also by our passion for supporting exceptional founders and ideas.”
This next-generation accelerator model with tightly aligned support for entrepreneurs beyond the program and linked to the ADvantage Sports Tech Fund creates an unprecedented ecosystem for sports technology value-creation.
The application phase is open until May 15, 2019. To know more, startups can visit the leAD website or go directly to F6S to apply now.
About leAD
leAD is a global powerhouse for sports tech entrepreneurship and investments. It was initiated by the grandchildren of Adi Dassler together with a unique group of shareholders who are experts in the fields of venture capital, business, sports business and tech. It consists of the following elements: the leAD Sports Accelerator, the leAD Business Builder and the ADvantage Sports Tech Fund.
The leAD Sports Accelerator targets seed stage companies with innovative products, services and business models in or applicable to the realm of sports. This next-generation accelerator model with tightly aligned support for entrepreneurs and a linked fund that will capture value from the accelerator’s leading companies creates an unprecedented ecosystem for sports technology value-creation.
The leAD Business Builder manages all the leAD portfolio investments into the companies that come through the leAD Sports Accelerator. The team not only provides the direction and guidance for the follow-on investments but also helps the companies tackle tricky issues that come up at the crucial development stage of the startups.
The ADvantage Sports Tech Fund intends to invest in early stage technology companies aimed at reshaping how we play and experience sports. Backed by leAD Sports and OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform, ADvantage, a $50 million fund, will leverage a strong global network to source leading opportunities in the spaces of fan engagement and experience, connected athletes and communities, and derivative sports.
leAD Website: www.leadsports.com
All images courtesy of leAD.