November 2015 marked the creation of The Sport Technology Innovation Fund as with London Sport aiming to support start-ups and other organisations specialising in technological innovation for sport, fitness and physical activity. The Fund was established to provide up to nine grants of up to £10,000 to develop and test ideas using technology and sport to support our strategic mission of getting and keeping people active.
First wave of funded start-ups
Digital and tech has become a driving force within society and one that the sport sector cannot afford to ignore. The first awards made through Sport Technology Innovation Fund, at London Sport’s Participation – The Revolution will be Digital, in February 2016 backed five start-ups to progress their ambitions:
- Sweatcoin
- PhysBT
- Follow the Light
- Racefully
- Exciting Engineering
Second wave of funded start-ups
November 2016’s landmark Sport 2.0 – The Digital Revolution Continues saw the announcement of four new awards through the Sport Tech Innovation Fund, building on the successes of February’s initial fund.
With a successful first wave of funding distributed to these start-ups, London Sport announced in February 2016 that a second wave of start-ups would be receiving funding. Listed below are the start-ups with background insight on how they are helping to get more people, more active.
Arrively
Arrively is a newly funded start-up that is designed to simplify the process of gathering data to help 150,000 sports clubs nationally to understand their consumer better, and in return offer a more tailored experience. The Sport Technology Innovation Fund has already enabled Arrively to develop an Android application that can now capture data for both Android and iPhone users
Fitt-In
Fitt-In’s new product has been designed to provide innovative solutions to getting younger generations into physical activity within the classroom environment, using technology to get people fit anywhere, any place and at any time. The concept, which has been rolled out in primary school classrooms, gets young people active through a range of body movements and exercises. This simple but clever start-up can be utilised in any environment.
bounts
A more established player in the market, bounts have been funded to establish how effectively rewards-based technology can be combined with physical activity opportunities to encourage people to be more active through extrinsic reward.
fanActiv
fanActiv have been funded to continue the roll-out of a new tech platform designed to challenge football fans from London clubs to compete off the pitch and be the most physically active club. With a football league set-up, users can see in real time who is leading the table as the most active. By creating a fun and competitive edge to exercising, fanActiv has united men to interact through social media, harnessing the concept of combining tech and sport.
