New Delhi [India], January 13 (ANI/PNN): str8bat, a consumer tech company in sports, focused on providing actionable insights for players looking to better their game, announced that it has secured an undisclosed amount in a bridge round led by SucSEED Indovation Fund, Dholakia Ventures and other Angel investors. SucSEED Indovation had also previously invested in str8bat. The freshly raised funds will be used to ramp up the go-to-market efforts internationally, fuel product development, and accelerate consumer and partner growth. Globally the sports industry is valued at USD 1.1 Trillion with cricket as the second largest participation sport in the world. With 300+ million players playing cricket across the globe (ICC Report), str8bat is looking to disrupt a serviceable addressable market of approximately 50-60 million players in cricket alone. str8bat plans to move to other sports in the coming year and later targets to become a platform for sports motion capture solutions.

str8bat aims to have 3-4 million players using its IoT and Data Science powered technology over the next 5 years.

str8bat is a consumer tech company in sports, that is democratizing the usage of technology in sports by solving the most fundamental problem of the sports industry - enabling players to play better. The sports industry needed a foolproof mechanism of measurement to improve the game - which did not exist. This is where the co-founders saw an opportunity.

str8bat's IoT and Data Science based technology gives budding and professional cricketers access to real-time, actionable insights by recording, analyzing, and enhancing every aspect of the game and connecting them to the world's best coaches. The str8bat sensor enables sporting equipment to communicate with coaches and players in a language they understand. This is what made players of all levels enthusiastic about the product. More than 6000 players have used str8bat including professional players from Rajasthan Royals, Cricket Australia who are using the str8bat sensor for player training and development, profiling and acquisition.

Speaking on the funding round Gagan Daga, the Founder and CEO of str8bat shared, "We thank Sucseed and other investors who have re-invested in our business in this round, which shows the confidence they have in the team to execute on our blue ocean strategy, scale the new product category and change-the-game. The funding will help us in our continuous innovation journey and will help us grow into Australia and continue to build our momentum in India and keep us in track for the next major growth curve of the company through our 4 channel GTM strategy"

str8bat is backed by an array of industry leaders and advised by a credible advisory board that includes James Sutherland (Former CEO Cricket Australia and Current CEO Golf Australia), Greg Chappell (Cricket Legend), Scott Dinsdale (Former Accenture APAC MD and Techstars Mentor), Gilbert Rodrigues (Director, SiiX-AGT Medtech Pte Ltd), Rakesh Chhabra (Managing Partner AARC).

Last year, the brand launched its iconic B2C product, the str8bat cricket bat sensor, which is now available in 3 major cricket playing countries of the world including India, Australia & South Africa.

Recently, str8bat announced a strategic partnership with Cricket Australia, the national governing body for the game in Australia. Through this partnership, str8bat aims to deepen its presence and grow its user base by helping professional, aspiring and community cricketers leverage data-driven insights to improve their game.

Speaking on why they have invested Vikrant Varshney Co-Founder & Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said, "According to the Markets and Markets, the global sports technology market was valued at USD 17.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 40.2 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 17.5% between 2021 and 2026. In India, the sports and game analytics market is at a nascent stage. There is a huge market potential for cricket analytics products as Cricket is the second largest participating sports. str8bat has developed a cricket bat sensor which is an IoT device backed by AI and analytics that provides instant visual and actionable insights without cameras."

SucSEED Indovation Fund (SIF) is an AIF Cat-1 Venture Capital Angel Fund with Rs100 crore corpus and has grown out of SucSEED Angel Network (SAN) and IIITH Tech Ventures, an early-stage tech seed initiative with IIIT Hyderabad Foundation. General Partners of the Indovation Fund have 100+ years of cumulative experience within technology, fund management, and start-up ecosystem and have already invested in 60+ startups. SIF attempts to support Indian Innovation for mass needs in the following Six (6) sectors - EdTech, FinTech, Health-tech, Security & RegTech, Enterprise & MSME SaAS and Gaming, SportsTech, MediaTech & Emerging Tech.

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