Valencia CF-Demium deal on sports startups

Article posted by Coliseum, June 8^th, 2022

Image: Valencia CF

The LaLiga club Valencia CF (Spain) have reached an agreement with Demium (a company specializing in attracting talent, incubating innovative projects and investing in them to make them grow) with the aim of establishing the VCF Innovation Hub in the field of Sports Tech.

The ‘Valencia CF’ stated that with this alliance, Demium has created the Matchday Innovation Fund, endowed with 5 million euros provided by external investors to promote startups with innovative ideas in the field of sport.

Valencia Club de Fútbol, commonly referred to as Valencia CF, is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in LaLiga, the top flight of the Spanish league system. Valencia was founded in 1919 and plays their home games at the 55,000-seater Mestalla Stadium since 1923.

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The Mestalla Stadium is a football stadium in Valencia, Spain. The stadium is the home of Valencia Club de Fútbol and has a capacity of 49,430 seats, making it the eighth largest stadium in Spain, and the largest in the Valencian community.

The ‘Valencia CF’ further stated that this vehicle will invest in projects created at the VCF Innovation Hub from the latest edition of its Innovation Program, which began in April, and will involve the creation of a new Sports Tech specialization vertical that joins the four existing ones: Fan Engagement, Medicine and Sports Sciences, Smart Stadium, and Academy. In its two previous editions, more than 100 startups participated in the selection processes, of which 18 were finally chosen among the four verticals.

The Demium venture capital manager, created in June 2020, became the most active venture capital in Southern Europe in 2021 in terms of number of operations, with 9.96 million euros invested in a total of 98 startups (through its hubs in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ukraine, and Poland).

Remarked Franco Segarra, Director of Innovation at Valencia CF, “The Matchday Innovation Fund merges the knowhow of our Innovation Program with the investment experience of Demium, and will be a strategic alliance to become leaders in the field of Sports Tech.”

Observed Jaime Guillot, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Demium, “This agreement with the VCF Innovation Hub will allow us to promote projects capable of going one step further in the world of sports innovation, and position ourselves as a standout in a sector in flourishing development and with a lot to contribute to the economy.”

The Matchday Innovation Fund will be the first of its kind to work with a football team’s Innovation Hub, and will invest in both national and international companies, with projects already underway applied to all types of sport.

Likewise, to promote this new innovation ecosystem, Valencia CF will activate a digital exhibition in the form of media for equity, worth two million euros. This will also allow the club to become the owner of a shareholding percentage of the Sports Tech startups promoted by their Hub, opening a clear path to future collaboration opportunities in terms of innovation.

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