“Both James and Adam are legends of the game"
Premier League footballers James Milner and Adam Lallana have invested in the Indian golf analytics app Upgame.
Upgame raised an undisclosed amount from the two players through the company that they co-founded, White Rose Sports Management.
The app itself was founded by ex-professional golfer Sameer Sawhney.
Upgame was developed by Delhi-based company, Bensaw Technologies.
It allows users to analyse their golf game and improve their play using a range of features including unique metrics which can be shared with their coach through the app.
This particular feature has led to a 790% rise in data collection from users, 85% of whom have been retained since January 2021, and has potentially led to a registered 30 times growth in monthly revenues ever since then.
Sameer Sawhney, Founder and CEO of Upgame said:
“Both James and Adam are legends of the game who have a great understanding of what it takes to perform at the highest level and the important role stats play in any sport.
“We’re thrilled to have two of the world’s most famous athletes join us on our journey.
“The travel restrictions posed due to the pandemic meant that our entire team was able to double down on the product to become the preferred data intelligence and practice tracking platform for golfers in every market we have entered so far.
“This funding will be used to develop the product further by adding more sports and related metrics and help us market the app to a wider audience.
“We are looking forward to applying our learnings from golf to other sports and be at the forefront of knowledge and performance enhancement in the burgeoning sports technology industry.”
Upgame is already being used by Golf Australia, the Norwegian Golf Federation, Singapore Golf Association as well as many others.
Various PGA, LPGA, European Youth and leading NCAA US college teams are also key users.
James Milner, Liverpool FC midfielder and Co-Founder of White Rose Sports Management, said:
“From the moment we discussed the ethos of White Rose Sports Management, we wanted performance to be at the heart of everything we did, and this aspect was very apparent in the Upgame team in our initial interactions.
“We love their vision of bringing performance improvement to athletes around the world, the team’s intense focus, quick execution and deep insights on their users.
“We are delighted to be a part of their journey.”
Other investors include Dr Pawan Munjal, Chairman and CEO of Hero MotoCorp, private American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Danny Conway, formerly of Facebook.