Introducing The Techstars Sports Accelerator Powered by Indy Class of 2021!
Jun 07, 2021
By Jordan Fliegel, Managing Director of the Techstars Sports Accelerator Powered by Indy
In putting together this year’s group, we continued our global search for not only the best founders -- with tremendous determination, large visions, demonstrated in-depth knowledge of their particular markets, and the humor and humility to rally a team around them -- but also teams working on some of the most timely and exciting subcategories within the sports ecosystem.
From empowering trainers (Freeplay & LegitFit) and player development (Grind & PlayerData), to at-home fitness (Flexia, LaunchPad), team management (Kairos), the athlete-focused creator economy (Curastory & Pwrfwd), and of course NFTs (Own The Moment & SportsIcon), the 11 companies selected for our 2021 class are creating new markets and disrupting established category leaders. Our diverse class comes to us from tech hubs across the States like NYC, Denver and Salt Lake City, and overlooked markets like Sacramento, Houston, Tampa Bay and Concord, NH. We also have heavy representation from the UK, with promising startups out of London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Belfast, for whom we provide the benefit of exposure to the U.S. venture and strategic partnership landscape, as they expand their international focus across the Atlantic. We couldn’t be more excited to bring these eleven companies to the city of Indianapolis, one of the best sports towns in the world, and an emerging hub for sportstech.
The founders from these 11 startups will join us on June 7th for our 13-week mentorship-driven accelerator program, culminating,as always, with our Demo Day on September 2nd, where they will showcase their progress in front of an expected audience of over 500 investors from around the world. Over the course of the summer we’ll focus on helping the founders better understand their customers, refining their go-to-market strategy, removing key obstacles in their path while accelerating their rate of progress, building muscle memory through KPI development and aggressive goal-setting with weekly progress accountability, introducing new partners and potential key hires, and preparing them for Demo Day and their likely Seed/Series A fundraisings to come in 2H 2021.
In doing so, we will have plenty of help! Our vast network at the Techstars Sports Accelerator Powered by Indy includes nearly 200 mentors from the sports industry including venture-backed founders, celebrity athletes, angel investors, VCs, VP & C-level executives from professional teams, leagues and publicly traded companies, and domain experts in categories ranging from product development, to sales, finance, digital marketing, and more. Not to mention our incredible partners, without whom none of this would be possible, and through whom our founders gain an incredible strategic advantage: Founding Partners including the Next Level Fund/50 South Capital, Pacers Sports & Entertainment, NCAA, and Indiana Sports Corp, and Supporting Partners Indianapolis Colts, NTT IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Please join us in welcoming these exciting new startups into Techstars Sports!
Curastory
New York, NY
Curastory allows creators to shoot and edit high quality video, monetize shows, and distribute to all of their video channels, 100% free.
Flexia
Sacramento, CA
Flexia is a connected fitness company that provides a Pilates Reformer and online studio with patentable technology to be used at home.
Freeplay
Salt Lake City, UT
Freeplay is a platform where independent fitness instructors teach in-person and online fitness classes, outside of a gym.
Grind
Houston, TX
GRIND has developed the first portable rebounding machine enabling optimal daily repetition to reach peak performance. Our software platform will give real-time feedback to players and coaches via their mobile device.
https://www.grindbasketball.com/
Kairos
Belfast, UK
Kairos is a communication solution for professional sports teams. Kairos is player focused and prioritizes clarity for athletes as well as offering significant time savings and efficiencies to staff members, administrators and coaches.
Own The Moment
Tampa Bay, FL
OTM provides the content, tools, analytics and insights needed to build a community around collecting and investing in NFTs.
Launchpad
Denver, CO
In-home, athletic training platform with AI coaching for young athletes. We enable youth athletes to have access to the equipment and interactive content that helps them train the right way.
LegitFit
Dublin, Ireland
LegitFit helps health and fitness professionals from first sale to scale. Our online platform and mutli-functional portal enables businesses to save time & increase earnings by up to $10k/year through.
PlayerData
Edinburgh, Scotland
PlayerData bridges the gap between elite and amateur, creating professional level technology that’s accessible to everyone. A supportive and educational service, we revolutionize the way individual athletes and teams train across multiple sports and platforms.
Pwrfwd
Concord, NH
PWRFWD is a marketplace that allows athletes to own their influence. We are a highly discoverable, personalized, low touch ecommerce solution for athletes. It is the centralized hub for their owned product, content and experiences.
SportsIcon
London, UK
Connect with the greatest sportspeople of all time through NFTs. For the first time in history, you can own part of your Icon's story forever.
