In October 2016, a tech company called ShotTracker raised $5 million in a seed round that included participation by Los Angeles Lakers President of Basketball Operations Magic Johnson as well as former NBA Commissioner David Stern. Today, the company that focuses on automatically capturing statistical and performance analytics for an entire team in real-time during practice and games is announcing another round of funding in the amount of $10.4 million, and Stern once again joins as an investor.
The new Series A financing round is led by Ward.Ventures and also includes participation by former MLB star Ryan Howard, as well as Greycroft, Elysian Ventures, KC Rise Fund, Irish Angels and SeventySix Capital. The total amount of money now raised by ShotTracker is just over $21 million.
“ShotTracker has become the leader in delivering basketball statistics and analytics for every level of the game and we’re proud to support the next stage of growth,” says investor David Ward of Ward.Ventures.
The sensor based system has thus far been used by the University of Kansas, the University of Oklahoma, TCU and Baylor. Players with ShotTracker enabled basketballs who are wearing sensors on their shoe receive access to real-time data and can see what areas of their game is in need of improvement. Additionally, fans are able to tap into advanced stats during games to get a better sense of how their favorite players are faring on the court.
Investors are going to want to see the new money used for further growth not only with college and professional basketball teams, but for enhanced use beyond the basketball court. Co-founder and COO Davyeon Ross appears to be on board with that idea.
“We want ShotTracker to be for gyms what Wi-Fi is to coffee shops,” said Ross roughly one year ago. “Our ultimate vision is that ShotTracker will power every gym across the world.”
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