Locally developed app helps athletes keep track of their record, find sponsors

Coimbatore: Geetha Karthik, an IT professional working in Germany, was on a visit to the city two years ago when she noticed athletes running barefoot at the Nehru Stadium. Some of them were wearing torn shoes. To her shock, the athletes told Geetha that they couldn’t afford sports shoes.
The incident prompted Geetha, an avid sports enthusiast, to develop ‘Sportiv’, a mobile application for professional athletes. The app connects struggling athletes with potential sponsors.

The idea to create such an app came when she and her husband Karthik Krishnasamy were working in Germany, Geetha said. “While we wanted to play outdoor sports, we struggled to find sports partners. So, we made an app for amateur sportspeople to stay in touch. But, when we saw the plight of athletes at Nehru Stadium, we realised that professional athletes were more in need of such an app,” said Geetha, who is now settled in the city to work full-time on the app, which has been incubated at the Science and Technology Entrepreneurial Park at the PSG College of Technology.

Sportiv would help sportspeople express their sponsorship needs, said Geetha. “Some people might look for a year-long sponsorship while some might need only shoes and t-shirts. The app would help them find suitable sponsors,” she told TOI.

Karthik, co-founder of the startup, said they are working on ways to systematise sponsorship. “We have found about 20 ex-athletes offline, who have come forward to sponsor athletes. Also, some corporates have shown interest to sponsor athletes,” he said.

Another important function of the app is to help athletes analyse their performance. “Athletes first have to know their level of excellence. For example, when interacting with a shot put player from the city, we found that her record was as good as the state record. But, she was unaware of that. The app would help such people analyse their record against the state and national records,” Karthik said.

Right now, the app has options to create profiles for athletics, motor sports, basketball, football and hockey. “We will soon add other sports as well,” said Geetha.

The app has been downloaded about 100 times so far. Also, athletics academies from the city have given about 500 applications to be uploaded from the back-end. The developers are also planning to set up a portal for athletic clubs to upload profiles in bulk.

Such apps would do away with middlemen when they have to search for sponsors, athletes from the city said. “By creating a profile in an app like Sportiv, there would be an objective record of the individual’s performance and his or her economic status, which would enable them to find a suitable sponsor,” says M Joshua Chelladurai, a 20-year-old athlete from the city, who has been using the app for the last six months.