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Sports Tech: Fitness Start-Ups Find Favour with Investors

Fitness, content, and esports. 
All over the world those three areas of start-up activity lead the way in attracting investment, according to research by SportsTechX, the leading platform for data and insights about start-ups and the SportsTech ecosystem, which has just published its 2019 Global SportsTech VC Report. 
The global report follows the Berlin-based company’s authoritative reports on start-up trends in Europe and North America.

In the five years since 2014 Sports Tech has attracted $12.6 billion in investment.


“Whether its North America, Asia or Europe, we found that fitness, content and esports are the leading sectors for investor interest,”

said SportsTechX founder Benjamin Penkert, who will be a featured speaker at THE SPOT in Lausanne in May 2020.

Start-ups focused on fans and content have attracted about half of all investment since 2014, according to the latest research.
And when it comes to unicorns, the start-up companies with valuations of $1 billion and above, all are consumer-oriented.

North America is far ahead of other regions in the volume of sports tech start-up investment, followed by Asia and Europe in third place.
In Europe, the UK leads the way, again by a wide margin, followed by France and Germany.
The position of the UK in first place is probably connected its strong positioning in the world of finance and sport.


“I’m often asked why it is in first place in Europe,” Benjamin said.

“I think it’s because London is established as the top landing pad for foreign investment from the U.S. and Asia, and because Britain, with the English Premier League, is seen as the mecca of football, the most important global sport.”

With the future of Brexit still unresolved, he added, “From the perspective of start-ups in sportstech, I don’t think it will matter whether the UK is in the EU or not.”
Football may be number one for fans, but for investors in start-ups, the new report shows the top ‘sport’ is fitness & workout, with over $2.5 investment since 2014.

By Jay Stuart


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