TeamLinkt scores $8.3-million CAD Series A to expand sports administration platform across North America

Saskatoon-based sports administration technology startup TeamLinkt has closed more than $6 million USD ($8.3 million CAD) in Series A funding from San Francisco’s Growth Street Partners to accelerate product development and expand its customer support team.

“Our vision is to become the first true operating system for youth and amateur sports.”

Jay Maharaj,
TeamLinkt

TeamLinkt offers sports management software that helps leagues, clubs, and associations simplify registration, scheduling, communication, and website management. The company plans to use this minority growth investment to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) usage, digital fundraising, payment automation, and advanced analytics capabilities. The funding will additionally fuel continued expansion across North America.

“The funding supports product development, go-to-market efforts, and key hires, all with the goal of helping more leagues, clubs, and associations automate operations and reinvest time and resources into growing the game,” TeamLinkt founder and CEO Jay Maharaj told BetaKit.

TeamLinkt’s equity Series A round closed in late July. A TeamLinkt spokesperson declined to share the company’s valuation or disclose whether the financing included any debt or secondary capital. This round brings TeamLinkt’s total funding to $9.7 million CAD.

TeamLinkt was built by the founding team behind Saskatoon’s ClientLinkt, which developed custom-branded smartphone apps for real estate agents and brokerages to stay connected with past clients post-closing. “After building in the real estate tech space, we saw a much larger opportunity to create impact in youth sports and made the pivot,” Maharaj said.

The CEO said TeamLinkt launched its app in 2018 and rolled out its back-office management platform in 2020 to tackle a “common challenge in youth sports:” staff and volunteers grappling with old tools and processes while keeping costs in check.

“I was coaching and managing my kids’ teams at the time, and it became clear that modern, accessible technology was badly needed across all levels of sport,” Maharaj said.

TeamLinkt currently serves more than 3,000 organizations and three million users globally across a variety of youth, recreational, and competitive sports, including baseball, basketball, cricket, dance, football, hockey, lacrosse, martial arts, soccer, and swimming, among others. With over 500,000 monthly active app users today, Maharaj said TeamLinkt’s clients range from large provincial and state governing bodies to small, community-run leagues.

The company’s platform offers tools for player registration, scheduling, team-specific apps, digital game sheets, and website-building. TeamLinkt’s recently-launched AI assistant, Emi, helps create registration forms, schedules, rosters, automated communications, and news and web content. Maharaj said TeamLinkt uses AI to reduce the administrative workload and helps leagues generate revenue through built-in sponsorship sourcing and fundraising tools.

The software is free and generates revenue for TeamLinkt through both credit card transaction processing fees—Maharaj claims the company has processed hundreds of millions in payments to date—and in-app advertising. The startup also sells launch packages to help leagues, clubs, and associations get up and running.

TeamLinkt’s competitors include platforms like SportsEngine, TeamSnap, and LeagueApps. Maharaj argued that TeamLinkt’s tech and business model—providing its platform for free to organizations—set it apart from other players in the space.

RELATED: LiORA secures $5.1 million in seed funding to scale its soil remediation platform in the US

In a joint statement, Growth Street Partners co-founders and managing partners Steve Wolfe and Nate Grossman, who are both joining TeamLinkt’s board, asserted that TeamLinkt helps its customers deliver more revenue with a lower administrative burden than competing products.

Growth Street Partners’ website indicates that the investment firm backs North American vertical software-as-a-service and tech-enabled services companies that are generating approximately $1 million to $5 million or more in annual recurring revenue.

TeamLinkt marks Growth Street Partners’ first Canadian investment. TeamLinkt plans to use this funding to expand its 17-person team with hires in product- and growth-focused roles. It is looking to grow its workforce to more than 50 people over the next three to five years.

“Our vision is to become the first true operating system for youth and amateur sports,” Maharaj said. “We want every organization—regardless of size or budget—to have access to powerful, easy-to-use technology.”

Maharaj said TeamLinkt is betting that AI will “play a major role” by letting customers run professional-level operations without requiring technical know-how.

Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by April Walker.