Amstelveen-based Dutch Sport Tech Fund, an investment fund that focuses on sports technology, announced that it has invested in Amsterdam-based Scala Sports.
Scala Sports says it will use the funds to streamline the organisation and further scale up its operations in the United States.
The announcement comes after the scale-up signed a deal with the American Tennis Association (USTA), with which the company claims to have overtaken American competitors.
How was Scala Sports born?
Leon Haverkamp and Bart van Monsjou founded Scala Sports when they were both working abroad and discovered how difficult it was to spontaneously play a game of tennis with others.
Haverkamp says, “In other countries, you are expected to become a member of a club or
competition. We quickly came up with the idea for a digital platform that offers much more freedom and ease of use. This is how Scala Sports was born, more than six years ago.”
“You play when you want, just like you book a yoga class or sports class online if you feel like it,” says Haverkamp.
Scala Sport: Platform for racket sports
Scala is the competition platform for racket sports. Players can join competitions nearby and play when it’s convenient for them.
The platform aims to make competitions more accessible and flexible. The startup provides the platform to associations and clubs to organise (flex) competitions.
Currently, Scala Sports is used by the American and Dutch tennis associations, which use a white label version of the app. About 70,000 players use the Scala Sports platform.
Scala Sports is active in about ten cities.
“We hope to serve 300 American cities in the coming years. This means that we need to expand and professionalise our team, from IT to service employees. That is also what we will use the growth money for,” Haverkamp.
“We not only want to scale up the platform internationally, we also want to add more sports. In addition to tennis and padel, think of other racket sports such as pickleball and badminton, but later also golf,” adds Haverkamp.
Dutch Sport Tech Fund: Investing in sports technology
Dutch Sport Tech Fund is an investment fund in which investors can invest in sustainable sports technology and data companies from €100,000.
The fund invests in young startups and scaleups, with scalable and innovative sports technology products and data products.
Within the sports technology, DSTF focuses on carefully selected exponential growth markets, such as esports, OTT streaming, fantasy sports, VR, fan engagement, performance monitoring and improvement, and data & analytics.
The mission of the Dutch Sport Tech Fund is to make a positive contribution to sport and vitality by investing in sustainable sports, technology and data companies.
“In Dutch Sport Tech Fund we find a partner with knowledge of and a broad network in the sector. In the market we are in, building relationships is very important. That is exactly what the fund helps us with. We enjoy being able to spar with experts in the field of sports and entrepreneurship. We are not the first scale-up to scale up, so we hope to learn a lot from the Dutch Sport Tech Fund network,” says Haverkamp.
