This is how the value of
Dutch Sport Tech Fund
certificates increased by 22.5% each year

The market for sports technology is growing rapidly. In this article, we explain how Dutch Sport Tech Fund reflects on the past two years and how we have built up evidence. We also share how the value of Dutch Sport Tech Fund certificates grew annually by 22.5 percent, from €1.00 to €1.45. Discover how our portfolio companies are performing and which startups have the potential to become a unicorn, in other words: with a valuation of more than one billion euros.

Data is playing an increasingly important role in the sports sector. Smart sports technology enables players to perform better, fans to interact more with their favorite club, and cyclists to find each other even faster for a bike ride. It is therefore no surprise that many new and rapidly growing startups and scale-ups are emerging in the sports technology market.

If these startups and scale-ups want to grow efficiently, knowledge and experience are essential. This way, not every entrepreneur has to reinvent the wheel. Providing knowledge and experience is one of the ways in which Dutch Sport Tech Fund adds value to startups. The portfolio companies also benefit from cross-pollination, for example by sharing their networks. In this way, the fund is more than just a sum of its investments and synergy benefits arise.

The sports market is traditional, which means there are many growth opportunities for innovative companies. There is still a world to gain by using data smartly or by measuring and data-driven improving athletes’ performance. Think of other sectors that have been ‘disrupted’ by technology-driven newcomers, such as the media sector (Facebook, Google), the hotel sector (Booking, Airbnb), and the payments sector (Adyen, Mollie). The sports sector will also be shaken up by tech companies in the coming years, and as a fund, we are responding to this trend by investing in promising startups.

Dutch Sport Tech Fund is the only Dutch fund focused on startups and scale-ups in sports technology, making it unique in this respect. Our mission is to improve sports and vitality by investing in sustainable and scalable sport-tech companies. We focus on several sectors, namely: Data and Analytics, Esports and Fantasy Sports, OTT Streaming, Human Performance, and Fan Engagement. The fund has been active since 2020 and so far has invested in eleven companies. The goal is to eventually invest 30 million in 40 companies.

The fund selects new participations in various ways. We examine whether the companies are scalable, whether the entrepreneurs have ‘skin in the game’ (if they have also invested in the company themselves), and whether the intellectual property is owned by the startup. Dutch Sport Tech Fund works with a fixed group of people, who are mostly top professionals in their field. We call this our own ecosystem. Various committees are involved in each participation. These are the Innovation Committee, which includes Marianne Timmer and Roelant Oltmans, and the Investment Committee, which includes Bert Oosterloo, former partner at PwC. Each participation undergoes a strict selection procedure.

Dutch Sport Tech Fund has invested in eleven companies, and this has been successful. Get to know the growth gems of Dutch Sport Tech Fund.

Is a Dutch SaaS solution that helps clubs and federations to measure and improve player performance in a data-driven way. ISG is used by 500+ clubs in 24 countries. We hope to help ISG serve 1000+ clubs, which should prepare the company for an exit.

Is one of the largest social communities in the sports sector, founded by former international Demy de Zeeuw. This app even has more than 70 million users. Dutch Sport Tech Fund previously invested in Jogo.AI, which was recently acquired by 433, resulting in a stake in 433. The company hopes to grow into a unicorn within four years.

Is an American fund, a so-called social betting fund. This fund has a stake in more than sixteen startups. The American market for sports betting is growing rapidly, by more than one hundred percent per year, due to a recent wave of liberalization. By investing in this fund, Dutch Sport Tech Fund benefits from this market.

Is an English social betting app. With this app, you can place bets with your friends during a match on events happening in the game, for example, who will receive a yellow card. It is an app that creates interaction between supporters both inside and outside the stadium and still has room to grow. 

Is a startup that is growing so fast, we could hardly believe it. This fan engagement app is popular in Southeast Asia and has increased its value tenfold since we invested in it a year ago. This is partly due to Google Ventures investing in Fando, which highlights the company’s potential. Fando now has about five million users and aims to grow to one hundred million users in the next three years to become a unicorn.

Is a pioneer in the field of digital sponsorship and also has the potential to become a unicorn. This Spanish company counts the world’s biggest sports clubs among its clients, such as Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Dortmund, and Juventus. The Australian Open also uses Horizm.

Become the platform for booking golf courses and benefit from the digitalization of this sector. Of the 730 million golf rounds played annually, only five percent are booked digitally. This shows how much potential this digital golf course platform has.

Is a popular app for sports pools, for example for the World Cup. The app has about 1.5 million users, half of whom actively use the app. The company is profitable and is in a position to break through internationally. 

Was founded by cyclist Tom Pidcock, who recently won the iconic Alpe d’Huez stage of the Tour de France. The app connects cyclists who want to go for a ride together. It is receiving high praise in international media such as Forbes, as well-known cyclists are participating in this promising startup.

Is a startup that enables fans to share a selfie on screens in (football) stadiums, even when they are watching the match at home. This provides sports clubs with marketing opportunities and relevant data. The tool is used by Spanish football clubs such as Real Sociedad and Celta de Vigo and has already been used by more than 200,000 sports fans. A promising start.

Is an organization that creates an offline and online community of sports and vitality companies. This Dutch company is developing a ‘LinkedIn for sports and vitality’, which provides insight into the entire ecosystem of sports and vitality companies. By taking a stake in this organization, Dutch Sport Tech Fund is able to discover the most promising sports and vitality companies at an early stage.

Dutch Sport Tech Fund welcomes every fan of sports and technology who wants to take a stake in the fund. In recent years, we achieved a virtual return of 22.5 percent per year, thanks to the fact that eight out of eleven companies have increased in value. The price of the certificates grew from €1.00 to €1.45. We achieve this by diversifying investments across different sectors of sports technology and various participations. We expect to realize an annual return of ten percent.

Investing in Dutch Sport Tech Fund is now possible from 100,000 euros. Interested? Request the Dutch Sport Tech Fund brochure here.