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When you intend of Comcast , you in all likelihood think of the overseas telegram or cyberspace service , but it also own NBCUniversal . With that comes a fairish bit of sports reportage , including the Olympics , NASCAR , WWE and PGA , to name a few . As such , Comcast has some motive to drive innovation in how sports are covered and consumed .
In 2020 , the society decided it needed a vehicle to support startups that were trying to bring disruptive technology related to sports . TheComcast NBCUniversal SportsTech Acceleratorwas born with a vision of find startup that would bring some innovation to their sports league partners , while giving the startups access to Comcast ’s media expertise and the league themselves .
This twelvemonth the acceleratorwelcomed 10 companiesto its 2023 cohort , its third family . Unlike a lot of accelerators , this one is n’t looking for downright novice . alternatively , it wants companies that have already built a ware and are working with customers . Comcast works with the troupe throughout the six - month catamenia , introducing them to their partners and helping them grow , but the companies continue to manoeuvre as normal .
Comcast invests $ 50,000 into each society in return for stocky fairness . Jenna Kurath , VP of startup partnership and top dog of Comcast NBCU SportsTech , admits it is a nominal amount of money , designed mostly to cover expenses related to participating in the catalyst . But she says the investment sends an of import content to their cohort participant .
“ It ’s really about us having tegument in the game and in their winner for one , but I think the other big important small-arm of that is that ’s typically stemma you would set aside for make for on a strategical advisor , ” Kurath told TechCrunch+ . “ But in this case , you ’re bring on multiple strategical consultant from unlike sports squad and league and types of sports . ”
The company also has a sister particle accelerator , calledComcast NBCU Lift Labs , which is a six - week broadcast focused on enterprise AI society .
For the SportsTech throttle valve , the idea is to find out feasible sports - come to startups , help them grow , and rule likely partners and customers to avail expand the businesses of the take part companies .
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Crossing boundaries and building relationships
It ’s all well and good to be sport - focus , but Kurath says the accelerator actually expect for companies that transcend any special sport , while peradventure even having room to work across some adjacent industries . She says if you ’re focused on one sport , you probably ca n’t scale .
“ So if you attend at sportswoman , it is not an easy industry to break into . If you were through networking , able to land within tennis , as an example , you ’re going to see that your production roadmap is going to be very lawn tennis - centrical . That ’s not needfully something that can scale and add value across multiple types of team or sports leagues , ” she said .
A good example of this type of more various fellowship isRivalry Tech , a member of the 2021 cohort , which began as an app to regularize intellectual nourishment from your buttocks with other customers in MLB . But it had a broader vision that attract to the particle accelerator , and conversely the throttle valve ’s broader coming also appealed to Rivalry Tech .
Company co - beginner and CEO Aaron Knape look it as a conduit for expanding into other sport . He say as a inauguration that was n’t an out-and-out beginner , he did n’t want advice on how to build a pitch deck or how to deal . He needed intro into the wider world of sport .
“ We needed connections . We postulate insights on how these monolithic partners are think , about how they ’re trying to carry through their own occupation strategies , ” Knape differentiate TechCrunch+ . He says the SportsTech accelerator was a vehicle that could provide that for his company .
The startup also require to expand beyond sport , and the fact that Comcast is a large and varied patronage could also serve in that wish . “ If you’re able to develop something on the grand stage of sports , if you will , that is applicable in other industries , that ’s where the real power comes in , ” Kurath said .
To that end , Knape says his caller is now working very closely with Comcast Business to get its spry service restaurant clients as customers . “ We ’re also talking to them about mobilise in the wellness fear and their cordial reception space . And that ’s , as you could probably distinguish , a much bigger distance than sports , ” he tell .
Beyond graduation
Meanwhile , the SportsTech accelerator ’s league partners hope to piggyback on the excogitation of the cohort ’s participants when it makes sense . Craig Neeb , EVP and chief development officer at NASCAR , says he ’s submerge with tar , and get access to the companies in the SportsTech accelerator gives him a more curated group from a partner he ’s used to working with .
“ I get just bombarded with requests , so for us to have that partnership with [ Comcast ] , who ’s going to vet all that , realise the focal point areas that we have in our business and get us homed in on some potential prospect down to the finalists has just a Brobdingnagian , Brobdingnagian upside for me , ” Neeb said .
Investor Lance Dietz from KB Partners , a sports technical school speculation capital letter firm , has place in at least one graduate of the accelerator . He also likes the fact that the accelerator is helping these companies with partnership and customer acquisition .
“ They have work up some unbelievable partnership with [ organisation like ] NASCAR , WWE and Comcast in world-wide that can be really meaningful to a company as they think about their intersection , they think about their go - to - market , ” Dietz said .
In September , KB Partners participatedin a $ 1 million seed inBookSeats , after it participated in the accelerator . The inauguration helps fans book an entire experience around an event , including flights and hotel room .
The Comcast NBCU SportsTech Accelerator is designed to fetch more of these kinds of companies to light and assist them expand and produce beyond the affiliation with Comcast . “ We want them to uprise and scale their business organization . We do n’t want them just cast anchor in our reality for them to be successful , and for that portfolio investing to study , ” Kurath allege
