Latest SportsTech VC Report highlights 2021 as record breaking year

Investment in SportsTech crosses $8.3 till Sept 2021. On track to surpass $12b by end of year, more than last 3 years combined.

Wow. What a year 2021 has been for SportsTech. In August, we’d written an article highlighting that investment in SportsTech had crossed $5b by the end of June. 3 months later, till the end of September, that figure has crossed $8.3b and is on track to cross $12b before the year ends. This rocket has really taken off! All of this covered in detail in our latest Global SportsTech VC Report.

In standard SportsTechX style, a lot of this great info is available in our free-to-download LITE version but this time we’ve gone a whole lot deeper in our first ever PRO version of the report. 18 additional pages containing analysis like geography snapshots, most active investors, sub-sector snapshots and more, all available right here for 999€.

Key Highlights

So what are the biggest highlights from the report? Will give you 3 for now

• 2021 a record breaking year: Till September 2021, more than $8.3b has been invested in SportsTech making it the biggest year for the industry by far and already more than the previous two years combined. Projected to cross $12.7b before the year ends, 2021 is a landmark year for the industry. Average and Median deal values of $30.9m and $3.1m are at unprecedented levels.
• 30 SportsTech unicorns in total, 11 emerged in 2021: The likes of Peloton, DraftKings & Fanatics might be already familiar names but 2021 saw 11 more companies cross the $1b valuation mark, 6 of these through IPOs. Sportradar, Sorare and Fiture are just some of the companies that made major waves in 2021. Most importantly, the 30 unicorns are spread over 9 countries with 5 countries added to the list in 2021. A great example of how SportsTech is growing globally. The USA is currently home to the most unicorns with 14.
• NFTs hottest trend in SportsTech: NFTs started the year red hot and grew to emerge as the mega SportsTech trend of 2021. Connected and Digital Fitness continues to grow steadily all over the world while Betting and Fantasy Sports is the other major trend fueling the overall growth of the SportsTech industry, especially through mergers & acquisitions.

And there was plenty more talking points: New York falling off the top spot for the first time, Fans & Content accounting for 47% of all funding, Fan Experiences the fastest growing sub-sector post pandemic… for all that and more you’ll have to download the report!

Time to break free

Following the pandemic hit sports-starved 2020 with 2021 has been like Metallica following a high school choir. With so many deals and announcements constantly, It feels like 2021 is the year where SportsTech truly went mainstream. The wider sports industry is finally acknowledging that innovation is not just necessary but actually the only way forward.

Rohn Malhotra is a Co-Founder at Berlin based SportsTechX — Data & insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem. You can get in touch via LinkedIn or email.