AI-powered tennis courts: Wingfield closes €4.0 million in Series A Funding.

Hanover (Germany), 3rd June, 2022 – The sports tech company Wingfield, which has developed a technology to convert tennis courts into smart playing fields, announced today that they raised €4.0 million in their Series A financing round. While the existing investors leAD Sports & Health Tech Partners and Hannover Beteiligungsfonds committed earlier in 2021, underlining their strong belief in the rising tech company, the final round was led by the new investors bmp Ventures with the IBG-Fonds and Adesso Ventures.

The investment will primarily be used to further grow Wingfield’s business in Europe, expand it to the US market and to improve the overall product experience for tennis players and facilities. Maik Burlage, Founder & CEO of Wingfield said: “We have used the last two years to further improve our products and to initiate important partnerships, such as with the German Tennis Federation. However, we are only at the beginning of our journey. Despite the impact COVID-19 had on our industry, the last two years have shown that there is a huge demand for our products. We are noticing that tennis clubs are increasingly under pressure to not only digitise their administration but also rethink their offerings according to changing customer demands. Club boards are getting younger and more tech-savvy and are now seeing the need to respond to these changes. The new capital puts us in a position to meet this demand and continue to grow in our core markets and the US.”

Tennis is currently experiencing a positive growth trend – also in Germany, for example. Despite the Corona pandemic, the German Tennis Federation (DTB) has recorded rising membership figures for the first time since 1995. While 1,366,137 people still belonged to a tennis club in 2020, the number of club members playing tennis has increased by around 17,000 – and these are only the formally organised players.

After being founded in late 2017 and its Go to market back in early 2019, Wingfield has become the European market leader in tennis tracking technology operating in 16 countries. The technology is used by over 250 facilities on more than 300 courts reaching over 20.000 players across Europe – from common tennis clubs, performance academies, recreational sports centers, hotel operators to country clubs and colleges. In addition, leading global racket and apparel brands use Wingfield’s data to test and demo their new product lines.

Famous names such as the Rafa Nadal Academy or the Queens Club in London can be found among Wingfield’s customers. Back in 2019 Wingfield was used on the grass-courts of the prestigious All England Club at Wimbledon, during their Road to Wimbledon junior tennis tournament. You can find all Wingfield clubs here.

Ywes Israel, Investment Manager of bmp Ventures: “Wingfield's case offers the best preconditions for a successful investment. We are therefore very pleased to be able to include such an innovative technology provider with a high level of AI expertise in the portfolio of bmp Ventures and in the IBG funds. Revolutionising tennis with artificial intelligence is very ambitious; with Wingfield, the Sportstech sector already has an important, internationally active player that will now ignite the next stage of development from Magdeburg.“

Malte Unger, Managing Director of adesso ventures: “We see extensive innovation and digitalisation efforts in the sports industry. Wingfield stands out here with exciting monetisation opportunities, such as AI-based advertising. This, combined with great technology expertise and a strong founding team, has persuaded adesso ventures to join forces with Wingfield.“

Anne Joachim, Finance Director of leAD Sports Tech & Health Partners: „We can proudly say, we have been part of Wingfield’s journey since 2017. We knew from the start that the company and its founders had the potential to create something unique in the tennis market. We are very pleased that other investors share in our belief and have joined Wingfield to further accelerate the progress of the founders and team as they continue to strengthen their position in Europe, and prepare to enter the US market. Wingfield’s impressive journey has just started and we are ecstatic to work side by side, fully leveraging our ecosystem in Europe and the US and partners such as the USTA, to support them in their growth plans.“

Wingfield aims to be the number one digital competition and coaching platform for racket sports. Their AI-driven smart net post – the Wingfield Box – transforms any tennis court into a smart and connected court enabling amateur athletes to experience the same data tracking and online user experiences that were previously only available to professional athletes.

Based on artificial intelligence and innovative image processing technology, the Wingfield Box tracks all activities on the court. Using real-time performance data it enables players and coaches of all standards to measure their personal improvements for the first time extending tennis into the virtual world. Interactive playing formats with direct feedback by the Wingfield Box after a practice session blur the lines between analogue and digital experience on the court. And a wide range of match statistics, previously only known from the broadcasts of major pro tournaments like the French Open, suddenly allow amateur players to compare themselves with the stars.

In partnership with the German Tennis Federation (DTB) Wingfield launched a new amateur competition format which allows players to play official matches flexibly on any court that is equipped with a Wingfield Box. Serving as an AI-Referee the Wingfield Box detects whether matches have been played according to existing rules and automatically forwards the end result to the federation so that the participants can get official rating points. Raik Packeiser (DTB Vice-President for Legal Affairs and Marketing): ”We want to promote digitalisation in tennis and at the DTB. The potential is great. The integration of the Wingfield system into competitive sport is an important step.”