Sports Discovery Startup Sportido Raises Series B From IP Ventures

SUMMARY

Sportido will utilise the fund for product enhancement and expanding its services to newer geographies

Its flagship app Charge will help users to track bookings and manage their customers and inventory

The sports and fitness market in India is currently valued at $3 Bn

Noida-based Sportido announced on Thursday (December 5) that it raised an undisclosed amount of funding from IP Ventures in its second round of funding led by Inflection Point Ventures and SucSEED Venture Partners.

The company will be utilising the funds to enhance its product offering for venues and customers, and expand its services to newer cities. Founded in 2015, the company was started by Neeraj Aggarwala and Akhil Ramachandran.

The company offers a single platform to connect with other players, book places and select more than 700 sports and fitness activities. Sportido helps enthusiasts book activities ranging from snooker table, badminton court, archery range, mini football, pool table, basketball table, table tennis board among other sports facilities.

Sportido founder and CEO Aggarwala said that India’s sports ecosystem is growing rapidly and there is a huge demand for sports and fitness solutions in the country. The company has witnessed a 7x growth in the number of sports facilities in the last three years, he added.

Besides its B2C model, Sportido ties up with venues and sporting facilities to provide a facility management SaaS suite called ‘Charge,’ which helps business customers track bookings, manage customer inflow and track inventory.

Previously, Sportido had raised funds from Inflection Point Ventures, Sumpoorna Group and other investors. Since its inception, the company has grown to five cities and their monthly sales have grown over 30x times.

Ramachandran adds, “This growth is primarily due to stickiness of users and high repeat transactions. The average user has transacted 7 times in the last 6 months, which gives us a very high customer lifetime value.”

According to a recent report, the fitness market in India is valued at $3 Bn and is said to be growing at a compound annual growth rate (CARG) at 18%, with a mere 4% of the market comprising of organised gym chains or digital fitness startups, mostly belonging to urban areas. The trend of digital fitness is not yet experienced by the Tier 2 and 3 cities.

Some of the other players in the sports and fitness space include Playo, Cult.fit, Playnlive, BookYourGame among others.