Sportstech Startup SportVot Bags INR 9.4 Cr To Digitise Grassroot Level Games

Sportstech startup SportVot has raised INR 9.4 Cr (approximately $1.1 Mn) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network India, with participation from Anicut Capital, StartupLynk, Ventana Ventures and existing investors Capital A, Ankur Capital, SucSEED Indovation fund and Marwah Sports.

The company plans to deploy the fresh proceeds to expand its tech capabilities and product offerings. 

SportVot, founded by Sidhhant Agarwal, Shubhangi Gupta and Yash Bhagwatkar in 2019, provides tournament organisers, sports bodies and clubs with a live-streaming platform. 

It helps sports bodies and tournament organisers broadcast their games to the world using premium features such as multiple-camera angle video capture, interactive scoring graphics, detail scoring for over 15 sports, remote commentary, automated player and match highlights as well as monetisation through sponsorship and advertisement.

The startup focuses on sports at a grassroot level in India, penetrating over 65 Indian cities and 15 countries globally. It has forged partnerships with Brahmaputra Volleyball League in Assam, the Maharashtra State Kabaddi Association, the Football Delhi Association and the Nashik District Cricket Association, till now. 

“Over the past four years, we have enabled digitisation for over 100,000 games from more than 15 sports and look to take this number to over 500,000 in India and globally. Our aim continues to be to bring unprecedented opportunities to emerging talents,” said Agarwal.

In 2022, SportVot raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round from Ankur Capital, Capital A, SucSEED Indovation Fund and Marwah Sports. 

According to Inc42 data, domestic sportstech startups have collectively raised $139 Mn across 29 funding deals between 2014 and November 2022. 

Major OTT platforms like Disney+Hotstar, JioCinema, SonyLiv and Amazon Prime have been bullish on expanding their presence in the sports streaming space. While the focus of these platforms is on streaming tournaments with massive fanfares like Indian Premier League, ICC India matches, among others, SportsVot focuses more on niche sports like Squash, badminton, basketball among others. Doing so, it primarily competes with FanCode. FanCode recently partnered with Amazon Prime to expand its streaming services on Prime’s streaming platform.