Boulder, CO-based TeamSnap, a platform to manage recurring team activities, announced this week that it closed a $2.75 million funding round led by Torstar, a Canadian media company, along with Toba Capital, and Hbam LLC. TeamSnap will look to use the funding to add to its marketing efforts and product development. To date the company has over two million parents, participants, and coaches using the platform, with 89 percent accounting for sporting activities and the remaining being group activities like bridge clubs, book clubs, and others.
CEO Dave DuPont founded the company after looking to leverage his technology background to solve a frustration he kept running into while carrying out his own extracurricular coaching and sporting activities, and today DuPont spoke with BetaKit about how the company will use the funding.
“We have demonstrated that we can be profitable and that our marketing works and that we can acquire customers. So a good portion of the funds will be used to accelerate marketing, at the same we want to increase the pace of our development,” said DuPont in an interview. “Specifically we want to move faster on our mobile development and league capabilities…those are two major initiatives on the technical front that we want to fulfill faster.”
Organizers, most often coaches, sign up their entire team to take advantage of TeamSnap features such as building an online roster with everyone’s contact info, player availability, posting game schedules, and more importantly collecting and tracking team fees and records. Team members can communicate via the web app, mobile app, email, or SMS, so they can send out quick alerts for things like last-minute game cancellations, and make sure everyone knows important details about the venue and game timings.
It also has solutions for entire leagues that let them create public websites and manage the registration and scheduling process through its backend technology. TeamSnap’s freemium model allows any team to register for free and charges for premium customization features, increased communication options, and statistics, with annual plans at $55 or $79, though teams can also opt for monthly plans. For leagues and larger sports clubs, it charges $249 annually and also provides the option of creating a white labeled solution.
DuPont’s main driver behind founding TeamSnap was that when it comes to the extracurricular realm he noted a clear opportunity for technology to disrupt and meet the demand of an undeserved market. Others have realized the same opportunity, with companies that provide similar functionality like scheduling, roster, and public websites for teams and leagues including eTeamz and LeagueAthletics. BetaKit also covered recreational sports management platform RosterBot in August 2012, and compared it to other competitors including BlueFields and Huddlers. DuPont believes TeamSnap’s cross-platform availability is what sets it apart from existing solutions.
In terms of the geographic spread of its users, roughly 53 percent are U.S.-based, while another 30 percent are in Canada, with Toronto leading in terms of activity overall, and the remaining users spread out across Australia, Europe, and the Netherlands for a total of 177 countries. The company will soon be announcing an updated iPhone app with new features and functionality, and wants to continue targeting larger leagues and sports clubs in terms of customers. Since the majority of its users are in the U.S., it’s not clear how Canadian investor Torstar will help it scale, but with a base of over two million users, the company should be able to use the funding to grow in its key markets.