Startup Huupe Wants To Bring Tech To Your Basketball Backboard

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By Simon Ogus

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One dimension of the sport of basketball that has essentially remained unchanged in a highly innovative sport is the backboard. While materials and small differences may exist, if you look at a background in the NBA from the 1980s to today’s game you will see remarkably few differences.

That is why the news that caught my eye this week was a startup called Huupe that is looking to change that and introduce a digital backboard in today’s game for not only high-level games in the NBA and college but everyday players around the world.

Huupe seels itself as the first-of-its-kind smart basketball hoop created by co-founders Paul Anton and Lyth Saeed, who spent three years refining the hardware and software to enable Huupe to use machine learning and computer vision capabilities to capture and analyze player data.

Huupe will also offer live training sessions with certified trainers where players can develop fundamentals as well as play in interactive tournaments where users from around the world can compete with one another. All the while, hoopers will be able to stream content and show off their game to their audience while they train. This can range from games of HORSE to shooting contests.

Huupe also took on funding this week with participation from F Street Ventures, Reform Ventures, JB Fitzgerald, Tundra Angels, and Ball Tek Ventures, alongside a group of angel investors. It has also received investment by Toronto Raptors’ Thaddeus Young and eight-season NBA veteran Trevor Booker and is expected to come to market in 2023.

While Huupe might not make a digital transformation in the NBA anytime soon, hoopers around the world could be connected in new ways as soon as next year.