Pitz, the amateur football app, raises US$300,000 from all-star investors

Contxto – Pitz, the amateur football league platform, is raising US$300,000 through the virtual venture fund, ArkAngeles. The company is already planning its expansion in U.S. and Latin American markets.

It feels like yesterday when the Tapatio founders were pitching Canal Sony’s Shark investors. But make no mistake, these guys seem completely different now.

Fortunately, I was able to attend a petit-comité fundraising pitch meeting and see how different these guys are nowadays. The event organized by ArkAngeles, the crowdfunded venture capital virtual fund, took place in Hyatt Regency in Guadalajara.

Among the 20 attendees, we could find some famous names across the football industry, such as Atlas’ star player, Juan Pablo Vigón, as well as some other former Mexican national team legends listening to the investment opportunity.

I’m a big fan of these guys. Not only they seem to be super excited and passionate about their product. They’re also great speakers.

So, what is Pitz?

The startup is completely changing the way they operate.

Pitz was launched in 2016 by Fernando Mendivil, Rafael Sanchez Varela and Eduardo Saracho.

Back in 2016, when they pitched to the sharks, the concept was a little bit off. The business model wasn’t well defined, and many of the features were not fully developed or even yet fully clear.

But if not the same, how ‘s Pitz different now?

Pitz is a B2B2C platform that allows amateur players to organize their team, sign up in league tournaments, as well as create a virtual avatar able to improve several indicators in order to get corporate sponsorships.

Through the mobile app, users are able to record and track their skills based on their performance during matches. Pitz uses machine learning based on historical data to create a gamified version of the players and their teams. Users are able to improve their skills and receive endorsements from other players in order to increase their chances of getting corporate sponsorships.

The app also lets tournament organizers better manage the match schedules, confirm the attendance of teams and enable payment of fees through the app.

Status

The company is already well ahead in terms of landing clients. Linio and Caliente are already customers for the platform, while Akron, Umbro, Puma as well as Corona, Kia, Rappi, Electrolit and EA Sports are already in talks.

These guys managed to create a very sophisticated business model based on interactive advertising and promising the brands direct conversion of customers, rather than just mere impressions.

Companies can now “sponsor” team uniforms in exchange for engagement conditions. Users need to follow instructions and participate in the activation campaign for the brands to sponsor their uniforms. Win-win situation, I might say. Very clever business model.

Thoughts

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a product as refined as their current one. I wasn’t well-aware or at least didn’t see a clear way to monetize such a platform. But now it’s not a matter of whether or not they can monetize but which one will they focus on.

I’m bullish. I think they’re definitely on the right track, nonetheless, they’re standing up at a breaking point where there are many paths they could follow. Choose wisely.

Some paths might remain short while others are definitely going to take them exponentially. However, I do think they need to focus. Right now I’m not really able to fit the startup in one single industry because they fit so many technologies and verticals: sportstech, adtech, fintech, AI, gaming, etc.

Nobody can be a top-performing goalkeeper, forward and coach at the same time. Perhaps gradually, but not in one single shot.

Trying to tackle every single feature at the same time would mean not going deep enough, not giving their 100% to one single stream, and staying average in every single one of them. However, it’s good to see they have so many things in mind and they have different ways they could monetize. I do see all of those ambitious goals happening in the long-term.

So, in short: the market is huge, they’ve found a great way to turn a simple B2C app into a solid B2B business. I like the app, I like the founders. I would invest myself. Focus, that’s my only suggestion.

If you’re interested, you can invest in Pitz via ArkAngeles, here!

-VC