MassChallenge + Stadia Ventures Team Up for Sports Tech

Written by Jon Nordby, MassChallenge Texas in Houston and Bill Powell, Stadia Ventures

In the face of catastrophe, innovators turn challenges into opportunities. As the world faces a global health and economic crisis, now, more than ever, is the time to double down on innovation strategies - and that starts with collaboration and nurturing productive partnerships.
 
With a new track focused on the emerging field of Sports Tech starting this year, MassChallenge and Stadia Ventures (“Stadia”) are collaborating to create an end-to-end pipeline of support for entrepreneurs by bridging talent, access to mentors, funding and relationships for founders building the next generation of sports and esports companies.

As a global Sports Innovation Hub for entrepreneurs, industry partners and investors, Stadia’s  hard earned experience accelerating sports tech investments combined with MassChallenge’s focus on nurturing young companies means that sports tech entrepreneurs focusing on world-changing implications for human health, performance and recovery, material science, analytics and fan experiences will find a full continuum of support throughout their company’s life cycle. 

The combined resources of MassChallenge’s deep expert business network and Stadia’s deep pool of leaders in sports and esports, in addition to a specialized curriculum, is a game-changer, because this powerful new formula won’t just serve to guide innovative companies to successful implementation and financial success—it will create breakthroughs that change lives as products move from experimentation to mainstream applications.

Working together, MassChallenge and Stadia expect to give sports tech founders a deep well of resources that hasn’t been readily accessible outside of the traditional tech startup space. And that’s particularly important for the future, because innovations in sports tech often represent the leading edge of innovation.

“The widespread adoption of tech and innovation across industries like health care, energy, manufacturing and defense is possible because someone was working on the bleeding edge of innovation,” says Jon Nordby, MassChallenge Texas in Houston’s Managing Director. “Being on the ground floor, or in this case, the field, and seeing sports tech innovations in real time is like looking through a window to the future. These innovations will make their way to commercial markets within the next 5-10 years.”

The next decade of innovation starts today. As MassChallenge learned when it launched at the height of the recession in 2010, we must all take action and identify new paths to market and discover solutions that resonate with our teams and our customers.

Now more than ever, entities from different sectors must come together for the greater good to bolster the economy. That means non-profit and for-profit alignments, and public-private partnerships. MassChallenge invites people and organizations ready to take action to join us on this mission by committing their knowledge, experience and financial support. 

“Now is the time to be bold, rather than wait and see. We’re here, and the game is still on. Even with the markets down and industry issues, we’re still investing,” Bill Powell, Managing Director of Stadia Ventures.

Game—still on.

STADIA VENTURES 

Stadia Ventures is the global Sports Innovation Hub for early stage investment in sports and esports. The three pillars of the ecosystem include a broad, independent growth fund, a deeply connected global network of sports and esports executives and a world class accelerator which combine to create unprecedented market opportunities and new technology. The success of the Stadia portfolio companies has led to Stadia Ventures being one of the longest running and truly global players in the sports and esports technology space. It is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri and has expanded their pressence to Frisco, Texas and Denver, Colorado. For more information, visit: http://www.stadiaventures.com.

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