Valencia CF and Demium launch Matchday Innovation Fund, a 5M€ external investment fund for sports startups

Valencia Club de Fútbol have reached an agreement with Demium (a company specialising in attracting talent, incubating innovative projects and investing in them to make them grow) with the aim of establishing the VCF Innovation Hub in the field of Sports Tech. With this alliance, Demium has created the Matchday Innovation fund, endowed with 5 million euros provided by external investors, to promote startups with innovative ideas in the field of sports.

This vehicle will invest in projects created at the VCF Innovation Hub from the latest edition of its Innovation Program, which began in April, and will involve the creation of a new Sports Tech specialisation vertical that joins  the four existing ones: Fan Engagement, Medicine and Sports Sciences, Smart Stadium and Academy. In its two previous editions, more than one hundred startups participated in the selection processes, of which 18 were finally chosen among the four verticals.

The Demium venture capital manager, created in June 2020, became the most active venture capital in southern Europe in 2021, in terms of number of operations, with 9.96 million euros invested in a total of 98 startups (through its hubs in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ukraine and Poland).

"The Matchday Innovation fund merges the know-how of our Innovation Program with the investment experience of Demium, and will be a strategic alliance to become leaders in the field of Sports Tech,” says Franco Segarra, Director of Innovation at Valencia CF .

Jaime Guillot, COO of Demium, assures that "this agreement with the VCF Innovation Hub will allow us to promote projects capable of going one step further in the world of sports innovation, and position ourselves as a standout in a sector in flourishing development and with a lot to contribute to the economy.”

The Matchday Innovation fund will be the first of its kind to work with a football team's innovation hub, and will invest in both national and international companies, with projects already underway applied to all types of sport.

Likewise, to promote this new innovation ecosystem, Valencia CF will activate a digital exhibition in the form of media for equity, worth 2 million euros. This will also allow the club to become the owner of a shareholding percentage of the Sports Tech startups promoted by their Hub, opening a clear path to future collaboration opportunities in terms of innovation.