Sports+Vitality scouts
growth gems for the
Dutch Sport Tech Fund

For years, Sports+Vitality has been committed to helping sports and vitality companies grow. To achieve this ambition, the company has established both a physical and digital community. Dutch Sport Tech Fund has been collaborating with this organization for some time and has now also taken a stake in Sports+Vitality. In this interview, Aswin Steenhof, co-owner of Sports+Vitality, explains how Sports+Vitality helps the Dutch Sport Tech Fund by scouting interesting startups at an early stage.

“We started in early 2020 with a location in Breda, before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. We are now at our third office, which serves as a hub for 26 companies and entrepreneurs focused on sports technology and vitality. We offer them a workplace and, just as importantly, a network of like-minded individuals, so that new collaborations may arise. We regularly provide our members with a platform, which helps connections form more quickly.”

“Everything we do is based on four core values: connecting, inspiring, achieving growth, and making an impact. To make that last point more concrete: from our hub in Breda, we are involved in various social challenges. Together with Vitaal Breda, we organize vitality programs for the supporters of NAC. In the coming period, we will focus on creating a healthier workplace. We do this by searching for the healthiest company in Breda, to draw attention to this topic. We do everything together with our partners, in the region, the country, and abroad. I always say: alone you go faster, but together you go further. That is our principle.”

“There are various initiatives active in the field of sports and vitality, which makes the landscape fragmented. In addition, there is a lack of connection between different countries and markets. The connections that do exist are often closed off from the world, as people still rely heavily on emailing, messaging, or calling. As a result, there is currently no clear overview of the complete sports technology and vitality ecosystem. We solve this problem with our digital community, which people can join.”

“You can compare the system to a community on Facebook or LinkedIn, but with more options. Options such as sharing news, but also searching for people and companies to make connections and set up new collaborations. In addition, there is an overview of events we organize, help with finding mentors and/or coaches, investment, surveys, and so on. You can even do all this with your own white-label community.”

Imagine you are a university of applied sciences training students to become entrepreneurs in the sports world. Such a university seeks connections with the business community on our platform, where they gain access to companies at local, national, and international levels. The university can also create its own community within the platform, for example for its students.”

“Absolutely! The municipality of Rotterdam noticed that children do take swimming lessons, but as soon as they get their diploma, they stop going to the pool. They were looking for a solution to this. They wanted innovative ways to make the swimming pools more fun and inviting. As Sports+Vitality, we help from A to Z in solving these kinds of challenges.”

“How does that work? First, we investigate the organization’s exact question. We turn that into an assignment, which we share internationally. Then we ask interested companies to make a video pitch. We provide the municipality of Rotterdam with tools to assess the entries and we guide the judging process. The final pitch round was live, after which two companies started working for the municipality. We teach the winning entrepreneurs how to turn their idea into a real business. And we can introduce them to potential investors, such as (through the network of) Dutch Sport Tech Fund.”

“This service, scouting tech companies, is one of our offerings, alongside renting out workspaces and membership of the digital community. That means we are relevant to our network in various ways.”

“Both of our organizations have been involved in sports and vitality for some time. We have also been working together for a while, which recently led to the investment by Dutch Sport Tech Fund in Sports+Vitality. There are also logical points of connection for our collaboration. We guide startups, who are often looking for funding, while Dutch Sport Tech Fund is searching for successful companies seeking growth capital. We help them spot these and share potential growth gems.”

“Dutch Sport Tech Fund aligns well with three of our core values: connecting, inspiring, and realizing growth. We find the knowledge present within the fund inspiring and hope to share it with our community, for example in the form of podcasts. In this way, various forms of cross-pollination are conceivable.”

“How wonderful would it be if we could bring together everyone involved in sports and vitality, and mobilize them to take action together? That way, we can make even more impact. We aim to achieve this by opening more physical hubs, both in the Netherlands and abroad. In this way, we want to grow into a global sports and vitality community, both online and offline.”

“We are also working on other initiatives, such as inspiration trips. For example, we take Belgian and Dutch governments and a few companies to Denmark, where we show them local Urban Sports Planning initiatives or give them a platform at a Danish business fair. And we introduce Danish companies to the Netherlands. This ensures that companies in both countries can find each other more easily. The guiding principle remains: together you go further. We therefore invite everyone involved in sports and vitality to become a member of our network. This way, we can make even more impact together.”