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St. Louis, June 21 – After fourteen-weeks of intense mentoring and business development, the four sports business startups—FocusMotion, GamerzArena, IdealSeat, and Spalk—in the Stadia Ventures Spring 2018 cohort finally graduated from the Stadia Accelerator on June 15th.
On Thursday, June 14th, over 70 people from across the St. Louis investment, startup and sports landscapes joined the Stadia Ventures team in celebrating the accomplishments of these four companies.
Each of the four companies presented their accelerated businesses, sharing some of their achievements during the program. For FocusMotion, they announced a successful business model pivot, product development, and strategy refinement. GamerzArena hired a CFO from their mentor team and kicked off their Seed Round fundraising. The accelerator program allowed IdealSeat the opportunity to reevaluate their business model, sales strategy and plans for future growth. Finally, Spalk signed two new customers, significantly advanced their Seed Round and refined their value proposition for broadcasters & content owners.
In addition to the presentations and demos, the St. Louis crowd also heard about “Golf & Innovation” from Keith Bank, CEO of Club Champion Golf and an investor in the golf and sports worlds, and Joe Shuchat, founder of Winning Identity, a golf management software company that was not only a member of Fall 2015 Stadia Accelerator program, but was also acquired by Blast Motion in 2016.
“It’s really incredible to look at the accomplishments that these four companies have made in the last three months. It truly would not have been possible without the support of our great advisors, investors, and mentors from St. Louis and beyond,” says Tim Hayden, Managing Director.
While this might be the end of the Spring 2018 program, it’s not the end for these companies. In less than two months, they will be presenting again at their Global Demo Day in Frisco, TX in front of 300+ investors and industry leaders.
The Stadia Ventures Sports Accelerator helps sports business startups get to the next level through the combination of equity investment, intensive mentoring, and connections to the top sports business executives in the country. This is the sixth accelerator cohort.
Applications close for Stadia’s Fall 2018 Accelerator program on June 21 which will feature both a sports tech and an eSports track. More information can be found here: http://www.stadiaventures.com/programs/.
Stadia Ventures is an early-stage, sports-focused venture capital firm with an accelerator program focused on business development and strategic growth. Since 2015, Stadia Ventures has invested from two funds in 25 portfolio companies and have two successful exits. It is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
Contact:
Tim Hayden, Managing Director Byron Abrigg, Accelerator Coordinator
thayden@stadiaventures.com babrigg@stadiaventures.com