November 29, 2018 – As seen on the independent.ie: One of Ireland’s fastest-growing indigenous tech firms has added $9m (€8m) in funding in recent months, including a ‘Series B’ round of $4m (€3.5m) that it has just closed.
Kitman Labs, a sports science and analytics company co-founded by former Leinster coach Stephen Smith and Iarfhlaith Kelly, has now raised more than $19m (€16.8m) in total as it has taken on some of the biggest professional European football and US sporting franchises as customers.
The startup makes software-based evaluation and measurement tools that help to prevent injuries and optimise individual players’ performance.
Smith said that the firm’s new funding was a reflection of it doubling its customer growth and revenue last year while expanding further into professional leagues such as the English Premiership, German Bundesliga and Chinese Super League.
It is also prominently used in American professional sports leagues such as the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball, while it has a strong base among professional rugby clubs in Ireland, the UK and the southern hemisphere.
Smith said that the money is being used to build up bigger bases within individual markets that it has established.
“We don’t need to raise €40m or €50m because we’re not Snapchat,” he said. “But what this does allow us to do is to make some big inroads within our industry and to solidify our position as market leader. We’re beginning to operate at real scale now across multiple leagues.”
The company, which has offices in Dublin, San Francisco and Australia, counts as customers US teams such as the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Pistons, rugby teams such as Leinster Rugby and the IRFU and large English Premier League clubs such as Everton and Norwich. It has also recently entered the UFC market.
Read the full article at The Independent
