The HYPE Global Virtual Accelerator Family is Complete

Where were you on the 31 December 2019?

Most of us can recall with vivid memory, where we were and in some cases even what they were doing at the time of significant world changing events. December 31 2019, was the first public announcement of a “pneumonia outbreak of unknown cause.” Fast forward 3 months and the world of sports is shutting down, league by league, race by race and tournaments across the board.

COVID-19 Struck the world in a blunt and abrupt fashion. Everything we know and have come to expect from our day to day lives, suddenly required revision and rethinking. At HYPE Sports Innovation our mission has always been to “Impact people’s lives through the power of sports and innovation.” With the world of sports tumbling around us we gathered in a crisis meeting to discuss our plan of action.

During our emergency meeting our Founder and President, Amir Raveh, quoted Churchill saying “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Discussing what the world of sports needed, together we came up with a new and revolutionary model to support the sports tech industry and help BRING SPORTS BACK! The HYPE Global Virtual Accelerator was born.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

The aim, to build a Global Virtual Accelerator for Sports Tech Startups. Given the new “remote” reality we decided to go big and recruit 600+ startups to the HYPE Startup Ecosystem in order to maximise the potential for qualitative solutions to bring sports back in a new post corona era.

In parallel, reach out to the Sports Industries leading Clubs, Federations and Stakeholders to present them the unique opportunity to access the latest and most innovative startups that have stepped up to tackle the world of sports new and its complicates new reality. The HYPE Team approached its mentors and also introduced new mentors to the ecosystem where necessary as well as investors from around the globe.

Divided into 6 verticals that deal with the sports industries biggest current challenges: Clubs & Federations, Esports & Broadcasting, High Performance, Sustainability, CHINA Growth and Taiwan

Given the uncertainty associated with the disease, there was no time to waste and immediately, the HYPE Team began a fast, aggressive and pinpoint campaign to secure the top startups and stakeholders for the project. The goal, to launch the HYPE GVA Bootcamps by June.

WARM UP

After successfully reviewing 1 067 startups who signed up to the program, our vertical leaders selected their lists of 50 – 60 startups each which then had to undergo a 2nd stage entrance review and in some cases even 1-1 interviews. A final list of handpicked startups were then invited to the various vertical bootcamps to be held between June 1 – June 18.

Each vertical leader held a kick off meeting with our partners, mentors, judges and investors. Purely from the magnitude of the individuals in each of these sessions it quickly became clear that something special was about to begin!

KICK OFF

Clubs & Federations

Our first HYPE GVA Bootcamp was none other than the Clubs and Federations vertical, lead by Sports Industry Expert Ryan McCumber. This was a bootcamp unlike any other bootcamp done before. Startups had the opportunity to listen first hand to the challenges of our partners such as: Los Angeles FC, Miami Dolphins, FIBA, Aser Ventures, Tennis Australia and others for a full week. At the end of that jam packed week, the startups pitched their concepts to all our partners and mentors in bid to be picked by the partners and potentially win a pilot with one or more of them. In a much like Sunday Selection Show, except on Monday, the partners revealed LIVE on Air the startups which they would like to work with throughout the accelerator!

Sustainability & Customization powered by

Loughborough University London

The next bootcamp, Sustainability and Customization in partnership with Loughborough University London commenced on the 9th of June. We were treated to some fantastic insights from Lecturers, Mentors as well as a side dish of British humor to keep us on our toes!

Esports & Media

The world of sports has been rocked, however, Esports experienced a record making rise in numbers. The Esports and Media Vertical is something that has been on the horizon at HYPE for months now, if not years! The Bootcamp run by vertical leader Borja Varela, a seasoned expert in the media and broadcasting industry, was truly monumental. Esports experts joined us from around the world and the startups were indeed quite impressive! Needless to say that the engagement from all our startups, mentors, and judges throughout the bootcamp made it all the more special!

High Performance

Clubs, teams and athletes are dealing with a new reality that require new ways to stay on top of their game. Gerard Klein, Senior Director at ASICS, is leading this cohort to success. June 15th startups pitched to sports performance industry leaders including: Michal Grundland, Tom Schreurs, Daniel Dümig as well as our partner Mathieu Lacome head of R&D at Paris Saint Germain.

CHINA Growth powered by ABSG

Our partnership with Aquabloom Sports Technology Group lead by Mike Yang is embedded in the history of previous accelerators but this is indeed an iconic step. Together we are opening doors into the Chinese Sports Industry for startups that otherwise would never have come across such an opportunity, enabling them to scale and grow their business even in times of crisis!

The CHINA Growth Bootcamp was BIG! We mean really big… 28 Startups competing to win their spot in a truly dynamic cohort. Thanks to the team at ABSG the event ran smoothly and startups, mentors and judges were treated to an innovative experience like no other! Not to mention the awesome startup pitches from entrepreneurs around the world

HYPE SPIN Taiwan powered by IAPS of NCTU

It’s hard to believe we are already in our 4th cohort of the HYPE SPIN® Accelerator Taiwan, and it gets better and better with every cycle. This cycle was the pioneer of all our Virtual Bootcamps and the startups that joined us were truly phenomenal. We were treated to an array of innovation from both global and local Taiwanese startups!

Welcome to the Family

Our HYPE Global Virtual Accelerator is up and running and after a successful series of bootcamps we can now look back and appreciate some of the numbers involved.

1067 startup applications
102 Mentors
32 partners
94 Startup Pitches!
6 SportsTech Accelerator verticals

Catch Up with the Highlights and HYPE GVA Interviews