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Are you a sports lover? If you are, at least once you might have felt the need to have one platform that could do it all for the player inside of you. To bridge this gap in the Indian Sports sector, Shashank Mishra founded SportsApp in the year 2018.
SportsApp is an aggregated platform built with the simple idea of providing ease for one sports lover to connect with another. Everyone from the team at SportsApp have played sports at different levels and have felt the pain that is felt by most of the players currently. So, the main idea is binding everyone together so that they can make this nation a good sporting nation by organizing this sector.
Launched in Mar’18, SportsApp has seen growth of 20X in downloads, 56X in MAUs and 80X in DAUs. Interestingly, the startup clocked an impressive 4X scale up in revenues during the pandemic year of 2020-21 FY. Know all about the Startup Story of Sports App in the post ahead!
SportsApp - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | SportsApp |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Delhi NCR |
| Founder | Shashank Mishra |
| Industry | Sports |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Parent Organization | Hanusha Networks Private Limited |
| Website | sportsapp.co.in |
About SportsApp and How it Works
SportsApp - USP
SportsApp - Industry Details
SportsApp - Founders and team
How was SportsApp Started
SportsApp - Name, Tagline and Logo
SportsApp - Startup Launch
SportsApp - Business Model and Revenue Model
SportsApp - Startup Challenges
SportsApp - Competitors
SportsApp - Funding and Investors
SportsApp - Advisors and Mentors
SportsApp - Growth
SportsApp - Future Plans
About SportsApp and How it Works
SportsApp is a Sports Professionals Network including sports academies, sponsors, physiotherapists, and parents. The idea behind SportsApp is to create a portal in which all the stakeholders in the sports industry can connect. SportsApp is curbing the Information gap, Visibility gap, and funding gap for sports stakeholders in India.
The SportsApp team believes that there are three things which are coming in a way to make this nation a better sporting nation:
- Information gap: Not having enough information on different events like trials, training camps, sufficient information of sports academies in different areas of one's favorite sports, lack of information of good coaches nearby the required areas, and also of corporate sponsors who are looking to fund athletes.
- Visibility: Player visibility is the main issue in India. Even after winning big events most players are not known to many. Sports academies in India do not have visibility initiatives to connect with players, their parents, coaches, etc.
- Funding: Financial constraints for players is a big hurdle in their way to pursue a career in sports. There is no portal where these players can connect with corporate sponsors for funding.
SportsApp connects all the stakeholders of the sports industry in India. Here they can follow one another, share relevant thoughts, get updates about upcoming events, sports job positions, apply for sponsorships, etc.
Chayanika Goswami
SportsApp - USP
SportsApp has created a unique financial logic that provides players with their market value and they connect players with corporate sponsors after verifying them on the application. This way corporates also get to see the profile of the player which is fully verified and with the needed analytics.
SportsApp - Industry Details
The sports culture is coming to India. We are a nation of 1300 million people. Out of which 30-50 million are actively engaged in sports and want to make a career in sports. In India, the is the ideal time for sports technology and fitness startups. One reason is increasing awareness amongst the people and second, is the increase in government support for such initiatives.
SportsApp - Founders and team
Shashank Mishra is the founder of SportsApp.
Shashank met Himanshu at Delhi Technological University and explained his full concept. In no time Himanshu joined Shashank's initiative. The SportsApp team comprises of:
- Shashank Mishra (Founder & CEO) (B.tech & MBA)
- Himanshu Nain (Head of Technology) (BTech)
- Prashant Chandra (Head of Marketing and Sales) (BTech & MBA)
- Mohit Prakash Yadav (Head of Operations) (B.Sc & MBA)
How was SportsApp Started
The idea of SportsApp struck to Shashank when he was in his final year of BTech. It so happened that he visited a sports academy which reminded him of going to another city to avail of information about some of the great academies to join back in his days. And till date, there is no portal where one can get sufficient information easily and also register for it. After BTech, Shashank joined B-School where he participated in a startup event powered by Google and backed a runner up position. So this pumped him up to make this company as sports has always been his passion.
Sumeet Kapur (Co-Founder & Ex-CFO of Nearbuy) was the first one who believed in this idea, and Sumeet has been mentoring Shashank to date. Also, after this event, Sumeet happened to be the first investor in Shashank's startup. Post this, Shashank started doing market research by visiting different sports academies, meeting different coaches, visiting Delhi University to meet national level players.
Everyone liked the concept and said they need a product like this. So he started designing the prototype. That's when he started looking for a tech co-founder at Delhi Technological University. And he met Himanshu (Co-Founder SportsApp) there who helped him in building this product with his efficient technical skills. After launching the SportsApp, Shashank got selected in Innovation & Incubation Center(IIF) in Delhi Technological University started by the Delhi government as an incubator.
Arbaz Sayed
SportsApp - Name, Tagline and Logo
Sumeet Kapur came up with the name 'SportsApp' when the team was looking for good names for this startup. They finalized on "SportsApp" because it sounded like WhatsApp and was catchy.
SportsApp - Startup Launch
After developing the application, Shashank launched SportsApp in an event called 'Aahvaan' which is a sports festival in Delhi technological University. And it is also North India's biggest sports festival. So on the launch day itself, SportsApp had about 200 plus sign-ups.
SportsApp is a networking portal so they focused on serving the first 500 people well in the network. The idea behind this was to trigger the contagious effect. They have partnered with many sports academies, Coaches in Delhi- NCR region and have got them onboard.
SportsApp - Business Model and Revenue Model
The SportsApp business model looks something like this:
- Talent Solution: In this, the application connects players with corporate sponsors using their unique valuation logic. SportsApp charges a commission on the athlete's side for this service.
- Market Solution: SportsApp also generates revenue from making bookings for academies, events, etc. and by promoting sports academies on SportsApp to get more leads for the academies. Corporates can also promote their sports products on SportsApp.
- Subscription: Users in the future can subscribe to the app to use more features.
Piyush Mishra
SportsApp - Startup Challenges
One of the major challenges faced by SportsApp is that this sector is totally unorganized so it's very hard to change people's mindset and make them understand that this can help them in a better way rather than the traditional approach that they are following. The main problem is that they are very much comfortable with the traditional way of doing things.
Rishabh Rathi
SportsApp - Competitors
Though the sector is unorganized still there are quite a few players in the market whom roundabout operate in the same target market. There are startups like RunAdam, SportsBrick to name a few. They all might have different unique selling propositions but they cater to the same audience as SportsApp.
SportsApp - Funding and Investors
SportsApp Funding Details are as follows-
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 2018 | Pre-Seed | INR 7 Lakh | Mr. Sumeet Kapur |
| Aug 2019 | Angel Round | $50,000 | Mr. Shubhrendu Khoche |
| June 2021 | Seed Round | $140,000 | Shubhrendu Khoche, Anirban Basu, Sanjay Ahuja, Ram Ganesan and Kuldeep Puri, among others |
SportsApp had backed Pre Seed funding from Sumeet Kapur (Co-Founder & Ex-CFO of Nearbuy). This helped the startup to develop the product and to launch it in the market in a better way. Also, the pre-seed funding helped them in getting market validation initially.
Plus SportsApp has Angel round funding from Shubhrendu Khoche (Ex- VP Mastercard) who is a Singapore based angel investor.
Noida based startup SportsApp raised $140K in seed round led by noted names like Shubhrendu Khoche, Anirban Basu, Sanjay Ahuja, Ram Ganesan and Kuldeep Puri, among others.
This unique startup which primarily addresses the aspiring sportspersons of India uses a proprietary tech platform to solve the asymmetric access to “Community, Sponsorships, and Career."
In a statement, SportsApp shared it will be utilizing the funds to further enhance its go-to-market, technology and marketing capabilities. This round of funding should further catalyze the fast growth this startup has witnessed in key KPIs since its launch. Launched in Mar’18, SportsApp has seen growth of 20X in downloads, 56X in MAUs and 80X in DAUs. Interestingly, the startup clocked an impressive 4X scale up in revenues during the pandemic year of 2020-21 FY.
Ashwini
SportsApp - Advisors and Mentors
The list of advisors for SportsApp goes like this:
- Sumeet Kapur (Co-founder & Ex-CFO Nearbuy)
- Shubhrendu Khoche ( Ex VP Mastercard)
- Anirudh Kalia (Sr VP StarSports & Hotstar)
SportsApp - Growth
- Revenue INR 18 lakhs for 2019
- User base- 5000
- Clients- Cosco, NFSportech, SteelBird, Wellcure, Alcis Sports to only name a few
- SportsApp has seen growth of 20X in downloads, 56X in MAUs and 80X in DAUs. Interestingly, the startup clocked an impressive 4X scale up in revenues during the pandemic year of 2020-21 FY.
SportsApp - Future Plans
The plan for the near future is to acquire players from different levels on this platform so that they can connect to help in a better way. By the end of 2020, they are planning to increase the user base to a lakh and generate a revenue of INR 65 lakhs.
In the long run, the company aims to have all kinds of sports sponsorship, ground bookings, event registrations to be done on SportsApp. They are on their way of breaking all the traditional ways which are being used until now and are moving towards making India a better sporting nation.
SportsApp has set its eyes on capturing 60% of the market share in the coming 5 Years.
Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs
What is SportsApp?
SportsApp is a Sports Professionals Network that allows athletes, coaches, Sport Academies and sponsors to get connected on a single platform.
Who are the SportsApp founders?
The SportsApp cofounders are Shashank Mishra and Himanshu Nain.
Is SportsApp an Indian company?
Yes, SportsApp is an Indian company headquartered in New Delhi.
Author: Vidhi Punamiya
Source : https://startuptalky.com/sportsapp-success-story/
Date : 2021-06-13T14:59:00.000Z