str8bat, a Consumer Tech Company in Sports, raises funds from SucSEED Indovation

~ Founded by Gagan Daga and Rahul Nagar, str8bat aids players in their ongoing quest to play better

• Funds raised will be used to ramp up the go-to-market internationally, fuel product development, and accelerate consumer and partner growth.
• str8bat aims to have 3-4 million players using its IoT and Data Science powered technology over the next 5 years.
• The str8bat cricket sensor is developed and designed in India and is already in three major cricket playing nations of the world – India, Australia and South Africa. The company aims to take this across multiple countries over the next 5 years

January 2023: str8bat, a consumer tech company in sports,  focused on providing actionable insights for players looking to better their game, announced that it has secured an undisclosed amount in a bridge round led by SucSEED Indovation Fund, Dholakia Ventures and other Angel investors. SucSEED Indovation had also previously invested in str8bat. The freshly raised funds will be used to ramp up the go-to-market efforts internationally, fuel product development, and accelerate consumer and partner growth. Globally the sports industry is valued at $1.1 Trillion with cricket as the second largest participation sport in the world. With 300+ million players playing cricket across the globe (ICC Report) , str8bat is looking to disrupt a serviceable addressable market of approximately 50-60 million players in cricket alone. str8bat plans to move to other sports in the coming year and later targets to become a platform for sports motion capture solutions.

str8bat aims to have 3-4 million players using its IoT and Data Science powered technology over the next 5 years.

str8bat is a consumer tech company in sports, that is democratizing the usage of technology in sports by solving the most fundamental problem of the sports industry – enabling players to play better.  The sports industry needed a foolproof mechanism of measurement to improve the game – which did not exist. This is where the co-founders saw an opportunity.

str8bat’s IoT and Data Science based technology gives budding and professional cricketers access to real-time, actionable insights by recording, analyzing, and enhancing every aspect of the game and connecting them to the world’s best coaches. The str8bat sensor enables sporting equipment to communicate with coaches and players in a language they understand. This is what made players of all levels enthusiastic about the product. More than 6000 players have used str8bat including professional players from Rajasthan Royals, Cricket Australia who are using the str8bat sensor for player training and development, profiling and acquisition.

Speaking on the funding round Gagan Daga, the Founder and CEO of str8bat shared, “We thank Sucseed and other investors who have re-invested in our business in this round, which shows the confidence they have in the team to execute on our blue ocean strategy, scale the new product category and change-the-game. The funding will help us in our continuous innovation journey and will help us grow into Australia and continue to build our momentum in India and keep us in track for the next major growth curve of the company through our 4 channel GTM strategy”

str8bat is backed by an array of industry leaders and advised by a credible advisory board that includes James Sutherland (Former CEO Cricket Australia and Current CEO Golf Australia), Greg Chappell (Cricket Legend), Scott Dinsdale (Former Accenture APAC MD and Techstars Mentor), Gilbert Rodrigues (Director, SiiX-AGT Medtech Pte Ltd), Rakesh Chhabra (Managing Partner AARC).

Last year, the brand launched its iconic B2C product, the str8bat cricket bat sensor, which is now available in 3 major cricket playing countries of the world including India, Australia & South Africa.

Recently, str8bat announced a strategic partnership with Cricket Australia, the national governing body for the game in Australia. Through this partnership, str8bat aims to deepen its presence and grow its user base by helping professional, aspiring and community cricketers leverage data-driven insights to improve their game.

Speaking on why they have invested Vikrant Varshney Co-Founder & Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said, “According to the Markets and Markets, the global sports technology market was valued at USD 17.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 40.2 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 17.5% between 2021 and 2026. In India, the sports and game analytics market is at a nascent stage. There is a huge market potential for cricket analytics products as Cricket is the second largest participating sports. str8bat has developed a cricket bat sensor which is an IoT device backed by AI and analytics that provides instant visual and actionable insights without cameras.”

About SucSEED Indovation Fund – SucSEED Indovation Fund (SIF) is an AIF Cat-1 Venture Capital Angel Fund with ₹100 crore corpus and has grown out of SucSEED Angel Network (SAN) and IIITH Tech Ventures, an early-stage tech seed initiative with IIIT Hyderabad Foundation. General Partners of the Indovation Fund have 100+ years of cumulative experience within technology, fund management, and start-up ecosystem and have already invested in 60+ startups. SIF attempts to support Indian Innovation for mass needs in the following Six (6) sectors – EdTech, FinTech, Health-tech, Security & RegTech, Enterprise & MSME SaAS and Gaming, SportsTech, MediaTech & Emerging Tech.

About str8bat – str8bat was started in 2017 by Gagan Daga and Rahul Nagar, with a vision to empower every player to play better.

To achieve this purpose, str8bat strives to evolve to a ubiquitous, multi-sport platform. At str8bat we believe in delivering instant insights that can aspire players to learn and engage and hence play better.

str8bat always aims for making sports-centric technological advancements accessible to amateur and professional sportspersons. For an overall pragmatic learning experience, str8bat is driven by the mission of delivering AI-infused sports solutions that make coaching and learning more scientific and playing more engaging.

Problem(s) that str8bat is addressing:

str8bat is solving the most fundamental problem of the sports industry; how to help players play better. Current approach to play better has inherent problems;

• No way to get instant and objective feedback – what you can’t measure you cannot improve
• Current camera based solution cannot be used by anyone at a place at anytime, are very expensive and subjective

We have globally patented an IoT + AI + Motion Capture & Analysis tech which can be used by anyone, at any time & anywhere and give INSTANT, VISUAL & ACTIONABLE feedback to any player across skill and age groups

Solution:

str8bat has started with cricket as the first sport in this endeavor to empower every player to play better. Cricket is not just a game, it is an amalgamation of skill and technique that opens the scope for ever-evolving cricket technologies. str8bat cricket bat sensor is one of the latest additions that makes the overall cricket skill learning process more scientific & fun.

str8bat cricket bat sensor is all about – Instant, Visual & Actionable Insights. It is a feather lightweight sensor that is placed behind the bat and captures motion without cameras.It records batting data in real-time, and provides a 360-degree 3-D view of all the shots played anywhere and anytime.

Founder’s Details –

• Gagan Daga (Captain & CEO):

Gagan is an INSEAD Alum and coms with 17+ years of technology industry experience incl. product management & development, sales, management consulting.

• Rahul Nagar (All-Rounder & COO):

Rahul is an ex IBMer with 20+ years of technology industry experience. He is an endurance athlete and alumni leader of George Washington University.

Founders along with its core development team and advisors including stalwarts in the field of sports & technology make a team that is changing the game.

SucSEED Indovation Fund (SIF) is an AIF Cat-1 Venture Capital Angel Fund with 100 crore corpus and has grown out of SucSEED Angels Network (SAN) and IIITH Tech Ventures, an early-stage tech seed initiative with IIIT Hyd Foundation. General Partners of the Indovation Fund have 100+ years of cumulative experience within technology, fund management, and startup ecosystem and have already invested in 60+ companies and are a team of proven Industry leaders, joined together for the sole purpose of bringing tech innovation to the market with their engagement and growth mentoring.

• Managing GPs of the Fund: Vikrant Varshney, Dhiraj Kumar Sinha,
• Other GPs of the Fund: J A Chowdary, Lax Chepuri, Ramesh Loganathan, V V S N Raju

Theme of the Fund – Indian Innovation for mass needs in the following Six (6) sectors – EdTech, FinTech, Health-tech, Security & RegTech, Enterprise & MSME SaAS and Digital Economy & Emerging Tech.

The Fund invests in three stages:

• Bucket A – Seed Fund (80% of discovery at that stage, yet 15-20% of Investible Capital),
• Bucket B – Growth Capital and Bucket C – Pre-Series/ Bridge Round, comprising 80% of the investable Capital of the fund.

Portfolios of #SucSEEDfamily (SucSEED Indovation Fund, SucSEED Angel Network and extended family of IIIT Tech Ventures and our partners overall) –

1. EdTech: lifecycle from K-12, STEM to College and beyond such as EduGorilla, Speedlabs, Edmingle, Ockypocky, Eventbeep, TruScholar, Seekho, Xplorabox, Tinkerly, LetzConnect
2. FinTech & Card Analytics : Stockal, Stack Finance, ConsCent, i2iFunding and Insense.
3. HealthTech, MedTech & Wellness: Remedo, AyuRythm, Feetwings, FlexMotiv and Rayd8
4. Security & RegTech, GRC & LegalTech: Spintly, IntelleWings. Strobes, Pixuate, ai, The Legal Capsule, Udbhata, Lythouse and Webnyay
5. EnterpriseTech SAAS: 6Degree, FreeStand, Jobsgaar, ai,  Kenyt, Cometlabs, Eunimart and Hyrelabs.
6. Gaming, SportsTech, MediaTech, Digital Economy & Emerging Tech: Kahanibox, Frenzi, UGH, EsportsXO, Stareout Games,  Str8bat, SportVot, Sportido, Pencil, Mevero, Ving Hybrid Technologies, Cloudworx
7. FoodTech & HoReCa Supply Chain Platform: Supplynote, GullyMart, Sortizy, peAR
8. Mobility, Auto, Logistics, Transportation: Sepal, Revos, Mashinga, Hoopy
9. Retail, Fashion & Lifestyle, Women Hygiene: 6Degree, Sanfe, ai, Niki.ai, Stargate,

Some of the recent exits from their extended portfolio

• Paymatrix (acquired by Muthoot Finance),
• Tapchief (acquired by Unacademy in a 100 Cr transaction) &
• Scholr (acquired by Byju’s),
• Tinkerly (secondary exit with Navneet Ventures),
• Revos (secondary exit with Union Square and Prime Ventures),
• AI, Hyrelabs etc.