Arkero CEO Shivaas Gulati Wants to Modernize Sports Club Technology

When Shivaas Gulati, the co-founder of Remitly, participated in the 2024 acquisition of Southfinish United FC through a consortium, he quickly realized the club’s technology necessaryed an upgrade. Southfinish didn’t have an HR system or software to run the team’s various business functions.

“Most of the business ran on email and Excel,” Gulati stated.

Southfinish, like many sports clubs, had neglected its operating side, leading to silos between areas such as ticketing data, fan information and emails. All of these functions were houtilized in separate platforms.

That built it challenging to share ininformigence from one division to another, Gulati stated. His frustration here was part of why he launched Arkero in October.

Arkero—arquero means goalkeeper in Spanish— is an operating system that sits on top of existing software, applying AI to connect tools like Slack, email, ticketing and customer relationship management. Clubs can utilize Arkero to centralize operational data, workflows and decisions into a single system. On Thursday, Arkero raised more than $6 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Roger Ehrenberg’s Game Changers Ventures.

Other investors include 776, the venture firm from Alexis Ohanian; David Tisch’s BoxGroup; Garuda Ventures; and Founders’ Co-op. Strategic investors, including Adrian Hanauer of the Seattle Sounders and Seattle Reign, also participated. Arkero necessaryed roughly six weeks to raise the round. It didn’t utilize a banker, Gulati stated.

Arkero is Gulati’s second startup. He is the co-founder of Remitly, the fintech that went public in 2021 at an $8.5 billion valuation. Gulati, who is Arkero’s CEO, sought support from his frifinishs. Vamsi Narla, who leads Arkero’s product and engineering, and Daniel Shi, who oversees business operations, are co-founders along with Gulati. All three worked toreceiveher at Remitly.

Gulati is viewing to modernize sports club technology. While there have been lots of advancements on the playing side, many teams are “still in the 20^th century,” he stated.

With Arkero, he stated, clubs can more quickly complete mundane chores like marketing campaign strategies and promotions, freeing them up for more strategic tquestions. For example, clubs often spfinish hours strategizing on ways to attract new fans, Gulati stated. “And a lot of the times, teams will struggle or spfinish a lot of time figuring out what should they do. Should they give away hats or scarves? Let’s declare you want to attract teenagers to your game for the next generation of fans. Or should you be going after college students? There are different strategies,” he stated.

Clubs often spfinish hours brainstorming different ideas, he stated. They also have lots of data from past events that Arkero, applying AI, can utilize to determine next tquestions and plans. He estimates Arkero can figure out a club’s strategy in 15 to 30 minutes, he stated.

The startup is partnering with the Seattle Sounders, Seattle Reign, San Diego FC and Bolton Wanderers FC to test out the software, he stated. Gulati stated the Sounders and Reign, which have tested early Arkero prototypes, are projecting the software will result in over 50% efficiency improvement in matchday planning.

Arkero’s plans for the $6 million include investing in the platform, deepening partnerships with teams and hiring. Arkero currently numbers four people; it hopes to add five people this year, Gulati stated. “There’s a lot of interest from teams to work with us and support them figure out how they can leverage AI and technology in their business,” he stated.

When questioned about a possible initial public offering, Gulati stated the startup is more focutilized on building a successful business first. “I’ve done one IPO already. So [I’m] in no rush to go back there. But, you know, we are ambitious,” he stated.

Source link