SportsTech Pitching Session in Vienna’s Allianz Arena.

Austria shows its SportsTech ambitions.

Vienna played host to a special edition of the SportsTech Austria meetup, presented by SK Rapid in partnership with tipp3, primeCROWD, Tensox and Toni.ai. The event was held in the Allianz Stadium, bringing together industry leaders to share insights and perspectives regarding SportsTech in Austria and Europe alongside a set of eight innovative startups who had the opportunity to present their solutions to an expert jury and group of investors.

The evening began with a warm welcome and introduction from SK Rapid’s CEO, Christoph Peschek, who emphasised the importance of being open-minded, also for a club with a rich tradition.

We didn’t have to wait long for the pitch session which came next in order to allow the startups to showcase their work before the networking portion of the evening began.

Startup pitch session

The jury selected to evaluate the participating startups included myself along with a fantastic cohort of industry experts and investors including Bernhard Ungerbock, Investment Manager at aws Gründerfonds, Karl Heinz Götze, Executive Partner at Gamma Capital Partners, Markus Kainz, founder and CEO at primeCROWD and Markus Raunig, Managing Director at Austrian Startups.

Here are the startups that participated in the pitch session.

Keego produces a sports bottle made of squeezable metal, keeping your water pure, your equipment light and your eyes on the prize.

Keyper provides white labeled technology for easy and secure sharing and selling of tickets by connecting the existing ticketing solutions with mobile platforms.

Lympik allows users to analyze their sport performance live from their mobile phone. From timing, location tracking and motion capture, Lympik is usable for many types of sport.

PlayerHunter is an online career platform for the football industry. With a “Smart Matching algorithm,” the platform connects players and clubs efficiently, quickly and easily.

SensuSport developed and patented a technology for mental learning in sports and professional applications with SensuGlasses, a wearable training device for athletes to practice their feel and touch.

SKILLCADEMY360 creates tailored apps for football complete with a 360 degree video player for smartphones.

Trackbar is an IoT device from SKAIN that monitors and analyzes every repetition and sends data directly to the coaches and existing software system or app of the gym. The trackbar connects coaches directly with their members to push individual coaching and the workout experience to new levels.

TwoReach is a digital and data based platform that brings together sports right holders and sponsors.

Congrats to SensuSport, the winners of the pitch session! It was a great group of startups that participated, we look forward to hearing more about each company! After hearing from the startups, we were able to stretch our legs a bit while we were treated to a stadium tour of the new Allianz Stadium, home of SK Rapid.

Keynote sessions

The evening continued with high-quality keynote sessions. The first was focused on performance data in match analysis and led by Stefan Oesen, Chief Analyst at SK Rapid. It was an interesting topic that paired well with the second keynote where we heard from Martin Hausleitner, Secretary General at the European Handball Federation, and Maximilian Schmidt, Co-Founder and Managing Director an KINEXON. The pair aimed to answer how performance data can be used for both sport analysis and media preparation using the example of EHF Euro 2020.

We then heard from a panel that continued the focus on performance data including Stefan Oesen and Martin Hausleitner along with Philipp Ertl, Head of Sports Austria at Stats Perform and Dr. Anton Sabo, Director of Life Science Engineering at FH Technikum.

Another country sticking its head out

All in all, the event was a great way to showcase SportsTech in Austria, a country we’re keeping an eye on within the European landscape. Thanks to Christoph, Chris and Klemens for having me in Vienna! Learn more about SportsTech in Austria as well as the region in our European SportsTech Report 2020.

Benjamin Penkert is the Founder of Berlin based SportsTechX — Data & insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem. You can get in touch via Linkedin, Twitter or email.