2019 Winners of the STA Startups Announced

Today the STA Startups, part of the Sports Technology Awards Group, in conjunction with Presenting Partner, Sportradar, the global leader in sports data intelligence, revealed its 2019 winners. In keeping with the nature of the sector, the emerging star line-up was revealed by video stream across a series of global channels, including Yahoo Sport.

Facing fierce international competition, as well as the scrutiny of a 20-strong panel of industry-leading judges, including Gfinity’s Amanda Lawson, UEFA’s Daniel Marion, the LMA’s Richard Bevan and the FEI’s Stéphane Schwander, the eventual winners were:

Deal of the Year – Vald Performance’s Acquisition of ForceDecks
Best Seed Funded Business – Guided Knowledge: the Next Generation of Wearables
Best Crowdfunded Business – Incentive Games
Series A Funded Businesses – Adrenaline Hunter
Series B Funded Businesses – LiveLike
Best New Concept – Danu Analytics: a Smart Injury and Performance Analysis System

Rebecca Hopkins, CEO of the Sports Technology Awards Group said, ‘The Startups serve a highly exciting and dynamic part of the sports technology sector; our aim is to create valuable, third-party endorsement for young companies, which gives winners a tangible commercial edge in a competitive industry. The judges observed that this year’s entries were as diverse as they were exciting and global, and we look forward to great things from them all.’

Adam Azor, Sportradar’s Director of Product Marketing, added ‘The partnership between the Sports Technology Startups and Sportradar is one that is extremely important to us; innovation and startups go hand in hand and Sportradar has built its business on the foundation of innovation. We believe startups and their evolution are the future of our industry, so we are committed to staying closely aligned to them.’

The Winners and What They Do

Vald Performance (Australia): Vald Performance’s human measurement systems are used to improve athlete performance and welfare

Guided Knowledge (UK): Guided Knowledge creates wearable technologies which observe and assess a user’s performance in 3D; custom, expert advice is delivered in real-time via a mobile app

Incentive Games (UK): Incentive Games is a B2B software developer which creates innovative, engaging, accessible games which help businesses acquire, retain and monetise customers

Adrenaline Hunter (France): Adrenaline Hunter is the first booking platform for extreme sports and adventure travel worldwide

Danu Analytics (Ireland): Danu Analytics has created a gait analysis system for injury and performance management

LiveLike (United States): LiveLike’s live streaming platform is a white label product that allows broadcasters to stream regular or interactive content to end users, under their own brand, on mobile and VR

About author

Chris McMullan
Chris McMullan 831 posts

Chris is a sports journalist and editor of Digital Sport - follow him on Twitter @CJMcMullan_

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