New Delhi, May 12 -- Centre Court Capital, a Mumbai-based venture capital firm that marked the final close of its maiden fund in December last year, has made a fresh bet on a Swedish sportstech platform, VCCircle has learnt.
The VC firm, which is focused on sports technology, fitness and wellness, esports, and gaming startups, has invested in PlayReplay, a sports technology startup focused on developing a tennis statistics platform.
Centre Court didn't disclose the amount it invested. However, PlayReplay said it raised a total of $12 million from investors including Centre Court Capital, American boutique investment and merchant bank LionTree, and ExM Investment Partners. Uppsala, Sweden-headquartered ExM operates a network of angel investors.
PlayReplay has developed electronic line-calling systems for tennis tournaments. Its technology uses cameras and AI-based tracking to determine whether balls land in or out of court. It offers a lower-cost alternative to systems like Hawk-Eye.
The company mainly targets lower-tier and mid-level tennis tournaments that cannot afford expensive traditional line-calling systems. Its technology is now being used across several entry-level hard-court tournaments in the US tennis circuit. The company is also backed by the US Tennis Association.
Meanwhile, Centre Court is deploying its maiden VC fund, which hit its final close at Rs 410 crore ($42.8 million) after exceeding the target of Rs 350 crore.
The fund is anchored by Parth Jindal, who is the managing director of JSW Cement and JSW Paints, and the founder of JSW Sports. Its other limited partners include Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund, Premji Invest, SanRaj Group, and GMR Sports, alongside a group of athletes, media personalities and entrepreneurs such as Neeraj Chopra, Rishabh Pant, PV Sindhu, Jemimah Rodrigues, Binny Bansal, Mithun Sacheti and Ankit Nagori.
The VC firm is planning to make 15 to 18 investments with initial cheques between Rs 8 crore and Rs 24 crore. It expects to lead or co-lead most deals.
Its portfolio includes sports broadcasting startup Quidich Innovation Labs, sports infrastructure startup Michezo Sports, racquet sports analytics startup Stupa Sports Analytics, AI gaming studio Airoclip, gaming startup Spill Games, cricket fan engagement platform FanCraze, and XR fan engagement startup Quintar.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.