Skip to main content
In COVID-19, Service Industries, Portfolio News

With a SAP collaboration and a round A underway, Pico comes out punching from Covid-19 crisis

The Israeli startup is currently working with over 60 sports teams globally from some of the biggest leagues in the world and was selected to take part in SAP’s first-ever fan experience–focused startup accelerator program.

It is no secret that there are many tech companies that benefited from Covid-19. For Haifa-based startup Pico, which has created a technology to turn engaged, anonymous sports and entertainment fans into identifiable customer profiles to support business objectives, the pandemic has not only been good for business but has helped validate what the company has been preaching for years.

“Covid-19 accelerated our growth tremendously. In the last two years we were running around with our sales pitch that you have to know who your digital fans are because most of your fans are online and not at your stadium and you don’t have data about them and need to start building this database. Now it isn’t us doing the pitch, it is the teams and the leagues doing it,” Pico CEO Asaf Nevo told CTech. “Everyone in the industry now says we have to understand who these people are. They suddenly realize there is a void, sometimes of tens of millions of fans, that they are spending tens of millions of dollars a year to engage with, but have no idea who they are. In these rough times when we don’t know when people will be back at stadiums, we have to understand who they are, start monetizing them, and begin to look at digital engagement as a new revenue stream.”

Pico is currently working with over 60 sports teams globally from some of the biggest leagues in the world, including the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, German football Bundesliga clubs Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund and several NHL teams.

Read More…

In Foundries, Article, Munich, COVID-19

With a SAP collaboration and a round A underway, Pico comes out punching from Covid-19 crisis

The Israeli startup is currently working with over 60 sports teams globally from some of the biggest leagues in the world and was selected to take part in SAP’s first-ever fan experience–focused startup accelerator program.

t is no secret that there are many tech companies that benefited from Covid-19. For Haifa-based startup Pico, which has created a technology to turn engaged, anonymous sports and entertainment fans into identifiable customer profiles to support business objectives, the pandemic has not only been good for business but has helped validate what the company has been preaching for years.”Covid-19 accelerated our growth tremendously. In the last two years we were running around with our sales pitch that you have to know who your digital fans are because most of your fans are online and not at your stadium and you don’t have data about them and need to start building this database. Now it isn’t us doing the pitch, it is the teams and the leagues doing it,” Pico CEO Asaf Nevo told CTech. “Everyone in the industry now says we have to understand who these people are. They suddenly realize there is a void, sometimes of tens of millions of fans, that they are spending tens of millions of dollars a year to engage with, but have no idea who they are. In these rough times when we don’t know when people will be back at stadiums, we have to understand who they are, start monetizing them, and begin to look at digital engagement as a new revenue stream.”Pico is currently working with over 60 sports teams globally from some of the biggest leagues in the world, including the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, German football Bundesliga clubs Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund and several NHL teams.

Read More…

In Foundries, Press Release, Service Industries, Munich, Portfolio News

SAP.iO Co-Leads Innovation with Munich’s SAP Garden

SAP announced its first-ever fan experience–focused startup accelerator program. From the latest SAP.iO Foundry location in Munich, eight startups have been chosen to participate in the upcoming fall cohort held in collaboration with SAP Garden, a multipurpose sports arena being built by Red Bull in Munich’s Olympiapark.

The collaboration aims to identify innovative technologies for use in in the stadium. SAP Garden will be the new home for local top teams EHC Red Bull München and FC Bayern München Basketball as well as for public ice sports.

Red Bull and FC Bayern München have been longtime SAP customers. With a passion for innovation, creativity and success, the three stakeholders are coming together to pool their expertise to set new standards for the fan experience.

“Together with our long-standing partners and customers Red Bull and FC Bayern, we want to create unforgettable fan experiences in the SAP Garden,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and responsible for SAP Product Engineering. “The SAP Garden will show innovative solutions and technologies from SAP and startups that put fans front and center. We are looking forward to working together with the cohort to build tailor-made solutions that elevate the fan experience in the SAP Garden.”

SAP.iO Foundry Munich is part of SAP’s strategic business unit designed to accelerate innovation and drive new business models for SAP. The SAP.iO Foundries program is a global network of equity-free accelerator programs located in strategic hubs. It provides startups with access to mentorship, exposure to SAP technologies, and opportunities to meet and collaborate with SAP customers.

The selected startups will work closely with mentors at SAP, Red Bull and FC Bayern to develop proofs-of- concept, access SAP technology and application programmable interfaces (APIs), and identify opportunities to collaborate with SAP executives and customers. The accelerator program will run for three months and conclude with a demo day in early December.

The cohort consists of the following startups:

  • Ariadne Maps provides a crowd analytics platform enabling retailers to infer meaningful insights from traffic data and trends to optimize advertising and marketing, maximize sales and offer the best service to visitors.
  • MultiBall merges sports and gaming, using fully immersive interactive solutions that combine fitness, entertainment and education while providing marketing opportunities for businesses.
  • io is reinventing the sports fan experience using augmented reality, allowing spectators to visualize and interact with live data, which is directly overlaid on top of the pitch and even on top of the players — in stadium or at home.
  • INS Insider Navigation Systems delivers a hardware-independent augmented reality indoor navigation system enabling precise 3D positioning, intuitive navigation and location-based AR content.
  • Pico turns engaged, anonymous online fans into identifiable customer profiles through personalized, one-to-one messaging, driving conversion from existing digital channels and increased revenue from enhanced sponsorships, tickets and merchandise sales.
  • TAWNY offers an emotion analytics software-as-a-service solution to capture and analyze human affective states driving consumer decisions and behavior.
  • Wagawin drives user engagement with interactive advertisements, allowing businesses to gain unique audience insights leading to more customized advertising options.
  • Zippin enables retailers to quickly deploy frictionless shopping in their stores, by employing artificial intelligence, machine learning and sensor fusion technology to create the best consumer experience. In December 2019, Zippin raised a $12 million Series A funding round, in which the SAP.iO program was a contributing investor.