Sports tech platform aims to connect athletes with brands
Matt Richards with his gold medal from the men’s 4x200m relay at the Tokyo Olympics(Image: Getty Images)
Double Olympic champion swimmer Matt Richards has unveiled a new venture designed to connect thousands of athletes with commercial sponsors. Sponza, Richards revealed to City AM, has secured a six-figure investment at a seven-figure valuation prior to its launch this week.
The sports technology platform will enable athletes to forge connections with brands, aiming to close the funding gap that Olympians and sportspeople frequently face between their required and actual financial support.
The initiative follows in the footsteps of platforms such as fan and athlete service Fayder, and emerges after canoeist Kurts Adams Rozentals turned to OnlyFans to generate revenue.
“So far the investment we’ve brought on has purely been through a close network of people that have either experienced this themselves or people that are within the industry and within my close network,” Richards told City AM.
“In total we’ve got 12 Olympic medals between everybody that’s invested and then plenty of other accolades in the business world. It is quite a tight group at the moment.”
Worcestershire-born Richards, who claimed consecutive 4x200m freestyle relay gold medals in Tokyo and Paris, reports that Sponza has already attracted 5,000 athletes from across 50 different sports.
“On the athlete side,” the 23 year old explained, “you can download the app completely for free, create your account and then begin applying to opportunities. It is somewhat limited, so you can only apply for one [opportunity] per month – or you can pay £10 a month as an athlete, and you’ll be able to buy into everything, get access to all the other bits and pieces.
“And then on the other side of the platform, the brands pay an annual access fee and then a very small commission gets paid out of the brand side, so it’s paid on top of the campaign, rather than through the athletes. The athletes aren’t losing any further commission on that.”
Sponza positions itself as a sports-technology platform that enables brands to identify and engage athletes with greater efficiency, whilst offering “direct access to relevant athletes and the tools to scale partnerships without increased overhead or complexity”.
Richards confirmed the platform will initially launch exclusively in the UK to verify all systems function properly, though ambitions for international expansion are firmly in place, with the United States a key target market.
“That’ll be a target for us,” he said. “And the ultimate goal is to be the go-to place for athletes and brands all around the world when they’re looking to work with each other.”
