Chennai-based startup Tournament OS has raised ₹1.75 crore ($ 2,50,000) in its seed funding round led by Element 8 ventures. High Networth Individuals (HNIs), including Satish Menon, Tharun Dhariwal and Shantaram, participated in the round.
Element 8 ventures is a fund based out of Australia, managed by Harish Palagummi, an NRI and great grandson of former President V.V. Giri. Element 8 group also managed the Sydney Sports Incubator located at Sydney Olympic Park.
“The money raised will be used enhance the tournament OS platform and scale it to global standards. We are also looking at expanding operations to Oceanic countries, and increase market presence in South India and among sporting federations,” said Aditya Elango, founder of Tournament OS, who is also a badminton player. In 2011, he was ranked 80 in world men’s singles.
Tournament OS is a sports platform that helps event managers and sports organisations digitally manage tournaments. Having been part of the sports ecosystem as an athlete (1999-present), an event manager (2011-2015) and a sports mentor/coach (2014-present), Mr. Elango has been observing the shortfalls in event management and tournament administration. He was surprised that most national federations used the pen and paper method even for simple tasks such as to record player registrations.
“As I lacked the technical skills to build such a product, I spoke to a friend about this in 2011, but unfortunately, the idea fell through. In 2015, I found event managers still searching for a tournament organisation tool. Players participating in tournaments had no way to track their progress and profiles. Like the many entrepreneurs out there, I started out building a product to solve problems that I faced in the industry,” he said.
Quick expansion
The start-up initially started as a tournament tool for racquet sports and quickly expanded to as many as 20 sports, including athletics, swimming and cricket. Till date, it has conducted over 100 tournaments across five disciplines in Tamil Nadu. In 2017, Tournament OS got inducted into the NASSCOM 10K Startup Warehouse in Chennai. “The programme helped us get connected us with key members in the start-up ecosystem. Apart from the mentorship, we also got to interact with other start-ups who shared their experiences in running a company, funding and pitching,” said Aditya.
Currently, the start-up charges an Internet booking charge on top of the registration fee the player pays for participating in the tournaments that are listed on its platform, similar to ticket booking platforms. The tournament tools are provided free of cost to the event organiser and the player also gets the convenience of not only getting match information and statistics, but also digitising his sports profile at the same time.