Consumer sports analytics developer PlaySight Interactive Ltd. has closed a $1.5 million Series A financing round led by London-based media-technology finance house D5 Capital. The funding will allow PlaySight to commence the roll out of its ‘Smart Court’ sports analytics platform in tennis clubs across the US and UK.
PlaySight pioneers affordable, consumer sports analytics systems. The PlaySight Smart Court, which has been designed and priced for tennis clubs across the world, is based on concepts used to train fighter pilots in the air force and advanced 3D visualization technology. The system provides, in real-time and with no operators, event-based visual feedback of “what” happened in a tennis match and helps analyze “why” it happened and “how” the players can improve.
PlaySight has already secured orders for the PlaySight Smart Court system in the UK and US, where there is a huge market for video-based coaching tools for both performance and casual players. The funding will be used to establish the first installed units at clubs in New York and London.
PlaySight was founded in 2011 by CEO Chen Shachar and CTO Evgeni Khazanov, and is based in Kfar Saba.
Shachar said, “We aim to revolutionize the coaching process in all ball sports globally, starting with tennis. There are 100 million tennis players worldwide and most have never received any visual or data feedback. PlaySight Smart Court aims to change all that. This funding will allow us to install the Smart Courts in key locations in Europe and the US.”
D5 Capital CEO Rupert Ashe said, “PlaySight has created a genuinely ground-breaking technology that can be applied to all popular ball sports worldwide. In the next few years we anticipate millions of sportsmen and women beginning to experience the benefits of camera technology which until now was confined to elite sports.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 16, 2012
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