Hasselt-based Raw Stadia, a leading sports tech startup, just closed a capital round of €1.5 million to develop the international growth of its cutting-edge solution for monitoring and optimizing the impact of playing fields on athlete performance. The new financing round brings together a group of investors including LRM, Noshaq and LeanSquare, as well as football icon Jan Vertonghen and entrepreneur Bart Claes, CEO of JBC.
Raw Stadia, founded in 2018 by Limburger Jan Stryckers and Reece Watson (UK), provides professional sports teams with advanced technology to monitor and optimize the impact of their playing fields on athletes’ performance. The company is already working with impressive clients such as Arsenal FC, Liverpool FC, Tottenham Hotspur FC, RB Leipzig, FC Porto, Inter Milan, KRC Genk and Federations such as the KBVB, the KNVB and UEFA.
One of the standout investors in this round is Jan Vertonghen, the highest-capped Red Devil and one of Belgium’s most respected footballers. “I am extremely impressed by the technology. Raw Stadia has the potential to completely change the sports world. As an investor, I look forward to the further growth of this company and the positive impact on the sports performance of athletes,” said an enthusiastic Jan Vertonghen.
“Every investor in this story is an accelerator that supports our growth and expansion story. This capital injection will enable us to expand our customer base and introduce and launch our technology in new markets, especially in the United States. We still aspire to include athletes and support sports teams worldwide in improving their sports performance. The combination of investment power and a growing customer base strengthens our position as a leading player in the sports technology industry,” commented Jan Stryckers, CEO and founder of Raw Stadia.
With this new funding, Raw Stadia will focus on expanding its customer portfolio and entering the US market. The company plans to apply its technology to various sports, including cricket, rugby, equestrianism and American football. Just for the latter, there is far-reaching interest in mapping the impact of the playing field on the performance of athletes.
“As a huge fan and connoisseur of the NFL as well as his extensive knowledge of business operations, we are very happy that Bart Claes is coming on board as an investor in our story, Bart believes in the power of Data and Technology to reduce the risk of serious injuries in Elite Sport,” added Jan Stryckers
To support continued commercial growth and ensure that all expansions are managed properly, Raw Stadia has expanded the team with two strong profiles, namely Thomas Vander Auwermeulen as COO and Tristan Selis as commercial lead. Additional efforts are also being made on operations and marketing to support overseas activities.
The innovative SaaS platform for Pitch/Surface Analytics, in combination with proprietary hardware solutions, has been specially developed to link characteristics of sports fields to performance indicators of players. By utilizing the Raw Stadia platform, customers can improve their understanding of playing surfaces and gain insight into how changing field conditions impact the performance and injury risks of their athletes. Raw Stadia offers sports clubs, leagues and sports federations the opportunity to take proactive measures by testing pitches and analyzing data prior to matches and training sessions.
