Israeli sports technology startup PlaySight Interactive has announced today that it has extended its Series C financing round to $21 million with $10 million in new investments from SoftBank Ventures Korea, a SoftBank Group early stage venture capital arm based and CE Ventures from Hong Kong.
Founded in 2010 by CEO Chen Shachar and Evgeni Khazanov, PlaySight is connecting the next generation of athletes on its global sports SmartCourt platform. The company is headquartered in New Jersey with its development office in Kfar Saba.
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PlaySight has been named in 2017 by Fast Company as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Sports for the second-consecutive year. The list included Apple at the top spot, Netflix, Patagonia, and the NBA among the Top 10. Companies joining PlaySight on the prestigious list included the UFC and the NFL Players Association.
PlaySight-powered teams include the 2015 and 2017 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors, the 2017 NCAA Champion North Carolina Tar Heels, over 50 NCAA tennis programs, the US Tennis Association, and leading clubs, academies, federations and schools worldwide.
PlaySight’s technology is now used in over 20 countries and across 25 sports, including tennis, basketball, soccer, football and volleyball.
CEO Chen Shachar said “Finding the right fit in a partner is of the utmost importance to us. SoftBank Ventures Korea believes in our vision for bringing technology to all areas of sports. We’re focused on the athlete, but along the way we have created a platform that is providing tremendous value to teams, leagues, friends, family, fans and more. We’re rapidly connecting the entire sports ecosystem, whether it is through athletic improvement, automated content production, video assistant refereeing, or by simply making the experience more fun, challenging and engaging.”
“PlaySight’s vision is to become the technology platform of choice used by the mass market of youth, amateur and professional sports,” said Jay Choi of SoftBank Ventures Korea. “It is only a matter of time before all competitive sports will adopt video and connectivity solutions in their courts and arenas, and PlaySight offers the highest performance solution and innovative business models to suit customers of all types.”
SoftBank Ventures has previously invested in several Israeli companies, including LiDAR startup Innoviz Technologies Ltd. and mobile computing company Saguna Networks Ltd.
