Veo raises $6M for us market launch
Danish startup Veo invented an AI camera for recording football matches and has now raised $6 million in a Series A funding round with both new and existing investors on board. Money earmarked at expanding into the US market.
Every year, millions of football games are played worldwide. Almost none of these are recorded, and therefore millions of goals and other unique football situations are not recorded — and special moments are missed. Danish startup Veo has solved this problem with a portable and affordable football camera that allows anyone, anywhere to record and analyze football matches without the need of a cameraman. The company raised six million dollars from us at Seed Capital along with Courtside VC based in NYC and Ventech VC from France in an effort to penetrate the North American market, and Veo cameras already started shipping to US and Canadian clubs.
“With this injection of capital, we can start meeting our own expectations of becoming a central player, both on the North American and the global football market”, says Veo CEO and founder Henrik Teisbæk.
The Veo football camera provides a solution to a prevalent problem in football teams on most levels: To record a football match or -training properly, a club needs a cameraman who can follow the players from an elevated spot by the pitch and has the technical knowhow to cut and edit highlights from the full recording. For the vast majority of football teams, this is not a realistic setup.
“We have an ambition of making video technology a natural part of football — in all clubs, on all levels. Not only in the biggest clubs who already have the resources to do so and just want an easier solution. But especially for the smaller clubs who haven’t had the opportunity to record football like this, until now,” says Henrik Teisbæk.
The camera itself is a dual 4K lens camera that records the entire pitch. And because it requires no cameraman, it can be mounted on a 23ft tripod with optimal view. The real magic, however, lies in the processing where Veo’s patented AI-powered software detects both ball and players to create a perfectly balanced broadcast view for its users. Just like a football match on TV. Both Veo’s software and hardware is developed and produced in the
company’s office in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 35 people currently are employed.
‘’We’re constantly searching for future category winners and those who have the potential to becoming market leaders internationally. Veo has created a highly innovative solution and has received a very positive market response. The product rates very favorably to competitive solutions indicating a promise of a potential category winner. Veo has demonstrated a product-market-fit and a promising business model with a price model that allow all clubs to benefit from their product and service.’’ Says Ulla Brockenhuus-Schack, Managing Partner of Seed Capital.
In the last year alone, 25,000 games have been recorded by 3,000 teams in 50 countries worldwide using Veo. That’s 13 times more than Europe’s five biggest leagues combined, and as Veo keep increasing its sales, these numbers will grow exponentially, turning Veo into probably the biggest football broadcaster in the world.
Veo was founded in 2015 Henrik Teisbæk, Jesper Taxbøl and Keld Reinicke.
Link to Veo AI video: https://player.vimeo.com/video/333529341
