Amsterdam-based Ludimos, a company that maximises Cricket coaching using artificial intelligence (AI), announced on Thursday, February 2, that it has raised fresh funding from Dutch Sport Tech Fund.
The Dutch investor backs scalable and creative sports technology products and data products from young startups and scale-ups. It focuses on markets within the sportstech sectors, such as esports, OTT streaming, fantasy sports, VR, fan interaction, performance monitoring and improvement, and data & analytics.
Alexander Janssen, CEO of Dutch Sport Tech Fund, says, “Although cricket is not the biggest sport in the Netherlands, the sport has 460 million players worldwide. In India, folk sport is number one. Ludimos, therefore, has enormous potential.”
“Many clubs and unions lack the resources to set up their own ICT systems, which is why Ludimos has become popular with major clubs such as the Indian Royal Challengers Bangalore and nine national unions, including the KNCB. We will help Ludimos to fully exploit the potential of technology in the cricket market,” adds Janssen.
Revolutionising cricket coaching
Founded in 2018 by Madan Rajagopal, Ludimos is a sports-tech startup that helps cricketers and clubs worldwide with their player development. The company aims to revolutionise cricket coaching and bring broadcast-level analytics to the masses.
The company’s platform is used as a SaaS platform to discover talent, such as in India.
Rajagopal says, “Indian clubs scan more than 10,000 profiles using AI to scout new top players first. It gives amateurs a chance to be discovered by clubs in the biggest league. A first player has broken through in this way and been sold to another club. We are perhaps most proud of that.”
Rajagopal came up with the idea for Ludimos when he gave cricket training at Bloemendaal, a town in the Netherlands.
He says, “During my weekly training sessions, it dawned on me that those training sessions could be much smarter. I worked with AI and saw opportunities to use this technology for my favourite sport. Almost everyone has a smartphone and can film their game or have it filmed. By analysing that data, players immediately see what can be improved. Other sports show how useful data can be, in cricket there is still a world to be won in this area.”
Rajagopal wants Ludimos to be a standard component of every cricket team’s practice gear.
“Our technology also has value for other sports. Why shouldn’t the AI that teaches cricketers to play better be used by hockey players, golfers, tennis players, baseball players and badminton players? The network of the Dutch Sport Tech Fund comes in handy for us, as well as the best practices that the fund has through training software for other sports.”
Currently, the Dutch startup’s app has about 19,000 users and includes the Dutch, Scottish, German, and Spanish cricket associations, as well as the Indian Premier League.
