Venture capital powerhouse Havaic has strategically entered the sports technology arena, announcing its maiden investment in Sportable, a South African startup revolutionizing data collection and analysis in contact sports. The Cape Town-based firm has injected $1 million into Sportable as part of a significant $15 million series A investment round.
Sportable, founded in 2016 by two South Africans, employs cutting-edge micro-tracing technology to elevate the standards of data collection and analysis, specifically in sports like rugby, soccer, and American football. The innovative approach involves embedding MT (micro-tracing) modules within balls or on players, which are interconnected by radio frequency beacons strategically placed around the field. This setup ensures the accurate capture and processing of data in real-time.
What sets Sportable apart is its cloud-based infrastructure, enabling the broadcasting and analysis of games within an impressive 90-minute timeframe with near-zero latency. As the global sports market reaches a staggering worth of $512 billion in 2023, growing at a compound annual rate of 5.2%, Sportable’s strategic investment is poised to facilitate the expansion of partnerships with international tournaments such as the Six Nations Rugby Championships, global ball manufacturers, media entities, and sporting leagues.
The leadership team at Sportable adds a unique blend of expertise to the mix. CEO Dugald Macdonald, a former NASA engineer with dual master’s degrees from Oxford University, spearheads the company alongside CTO Peter Husemeyer, a former investment analyst.
Havaic’s managing partner, Ian Lessem, expressed enthusiasm about Sportable’s broad reach across rugby, American football, and soccer, underscoring the company’s impressive standing within these prominent leagues. Lessem anticipates that Havaic’s unique insight network investing approach will synergize effectively with Sportable’s ambitions.
Sportable is not merely a beneficiary of Havaic’s investment; it joins a growing cohort of African-born technology companies that operate globally and reinvest in the continent, fostering skilled employment and contributing to local economies. The company is currently embarking on a recruitment drive to expand its team based in Cape Town.
Havaic, known for its forward-thinking investment strategies, recently closed its second $20 million pan-African investment fund in 2022. The fund focuses on nurturing African-born entrepreneurs leveraging technology to address real-world concerns. Noteworthy investments from this fund include early-stage digital businesses in fintech, healthtech, and safetech sectors, featuring companies like Aura, Kuda, Crowdforce, Mobiz, Comparisure, Tanda, RecoMed, and HearX.
Ian Lessem, Managing Partner at Havaic, emphasized the importance of institutional investors bringing both international contacts and capital to the fund. This, combined with the firm’s deep investment experience in Africa, creates a winning formula of local expertise, networks, and international follow-on capital — a crucial combination for scaling up businesses in the dynamic African market.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard.