Start-Up Winner Crowned As THE SPOT Concludes

Virtual commentary company Spalk was declared the winner of THE SPOT’s Start-up Battle operated by Venturelab as the two-day event at the SwissTech Convention Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, ended yesterday.

The second edition of THE SPOT attracted 850 delegates from 35 countries representing 450 organisations and companies were present.

Participants included over 150 employees from Sport Federations and the International Olympic Committee, 80 start-ups and over 55 international speakers. The Market Place and Demo Zone featured over 50 start-ups changing booths each day, 12 corporate stands as well as Houses for Belgium, Italy and Switzerland.

Spalk provides a cost-saving virtual commentary solution, allowing leagues and broadcasters to add multilingual and alternate commentaries to their existing live broadcasts from commentators behind their laptops, anywhere in the world and targeting fans demographically.

Despite strong competition from over 40 competitors, the company won a total cash prize of CHF5,000 (CHF1,000 in the preliminary round topped up with CHF4,000 as the ultimate title of Start-up Battle 2019 winner).

(In the photo above, Spalk founder Ben Reynolds receives the grand prize from Anna Hellman, Managing Director of THE SPOT.)

Start-ups specialising in blockchain, virtual reality, data analytics, connected venue, performance & health, fan engagement and other fields went head-to-head in front of an enthusiastic crowd and an impressive jury made up of investors, experts from the Olympic Movement, and business leaders.

Advanced Sport Instruments (A.S.I.) won the Swiss Coup de Cœur, a CHF 2,000 prize offered by the extended organising committee to the most promising Swiss start-up of the competition. In addition, a Discovery start-up battle provided an opportunity for 16 early-stage start-ups to present their innovative ideas to an audience of industry professionals.

“We are really pleased with this second edition of THE SPOT and have received very positive feedback,” said Hellman, who also heads ThinkSport. “It’s still a young event, but we have the feeling that we are helping to form a really dynamic sports and innovation community in the region and beyond, which is keen to share fresh ideas and team up with other creative partners.”

She added: “THE SPOT serves as an annual meeting point for this smart crowd, however with our new Sports Innovation Hub, we will now have a solid and permanent platform for sport and innovation in the region.”

At the opening of THE SPOT, it was announced that Eurovision Sport, Nagra Kudelski, SwissTiming and UEFA will officially support the new Sport Innovation Hub.

THE SPOT will be back for a third edition on 12 and 13 May 12-13, 2020.