After a successful inaugural program in 2015, the Los Angeles Dodgers and R/GA Ventures announced five companies chosen for the second Dodgers Sports Accelerator, which launched Tuesday in R/GA’s Los Angeles office.
The five companies chosen are Greenfly, Keemotion, Renegade, ShotTracker, and WSC. The accelerator program focuses on growth-stage companies and immediate business opportunities designed to create a path to category leadership and scale.
This year’s program features companies that include new platforms for creating real-time data, video, and highlights for amateur and professional sports teams, community-based content creation tools for brands and organizations, as well as innovative cleaning technology for high-performance sports apparel and gear.
“The Dodger organization remains committed to utilizing our brand and this outstanding platform to continue to drive our industry forward,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said in a released statement.
“The unbelievable worldwide interest in our first accelerator and the success the 10 companies achieved has certainly been a major asset to us and the sports and entertainment industry.”
The selected companies will receive in-depth engagement with Dodgers leadership, business units, and industry network as well as with R/GA’s award-winning strategic marketing, branding, design, and technology services.
“We are confident that the combination of a smaller class of growth-stage companies, a customized approach, and the engagement of our partners, the Dodgers organization, and R/GA will drive significant results,” Dodgers chief financial officer Tucker Kain said.
“We also see immediate growth opportunities for the program companies through collaboration based on the complementary nature of their businesses.”
The program concludes in early November with invite-only demo events at which point each startup will present to industry leaders, partners, and customers in the sports, technology, and entertainment communities.
Synopsis of selected companies:
- Greenfly transforms the relationships of organizations into powerful networks for content creation and distribution.
- Keemotion enables broadcast partners, professional leagues, and universities from around the world to produce, customize, stream and share professional-quality HD video content live with the push of a button.
- Renegade creates next-generation, Sweat X branded sports detergent, stain and odor technologies, specifically engineered to meet the needs of today’s high-performance sports apparel and gear, used at the professional, collegiate and youth sports levels.
- ShotTracker with its innovative “ShotTracker TEAM” solution, affordably captures real-time stats for basketball teams, yielding powerful analytics for coaches, players and fans.
- WSC Technologies has developed a platform that creates personalized sports videos automatically and in real-time, helping sports leagues and broadcasters to engage fans and monetize their content.
Visit www.dodgersaccelerator.com and follow @dodgersaccel and @rgaventures for additional information on the Dodgers Accelerator program.