Indiana Economic Development Corporation and Indiana Sports Corp have partnered to launch a new nonprofit organization, SportsTech HQ. The purpose of SportsTech HQ is to create impact in Indiana through investments in sports tech, maximize existing investments in sports tech through sports community collaboration and partnerships, cultivate a sports tech ecosystem which inspires and facilitates innovation, and builds Indiana’s brand as a sports tech destination of choice.
The launch and success of Techstars Sports Accelerator Powered by Indy in 2019 demonstrated that Indiana has a unique set of sports and technology assets to attract top performing international venture startups to the state. SportsTech HQ was formed in an effort to capitalize on this successful attraction of venture startups and to further build Indiana’s sportstech business ecosystem.
"Indiana has developed an international reputation for amateur and professional sports over the last four decades,” said Brad Chambers, Indiana Secretary of Commerce. “By focusing on the future of sports technology, we are taking intentional strategic steps to ensure Indiana is the hub for sports technology companies for the next four decades and beyond."
As one of the first investments made by SportsTech HQ, One-Zero, the sports and entertainment summit, will relaunch this year in Indianapolis. The event will bring together some of the leading minds in sports business at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Headquarters from July 6th - 8th, 2022.
The One-Zero summit established itself in Dublin, Ireland over a three-year period culminating in 1,000 attendees from 16 different countries gathering for the last edition of the event in 2019. Previous organizations who have spoken at the event include executives from the Premier League, the NFL, Formula1, and leading global brands such as Nike and Microsoft.
Indianapolis is known as the “city where champions are crowned” and hosts events such as the Indy 500, as well as having various professional sports teams including the Indiana Pacers, Indiana Fever, and Indianapolis Colts. The city is also home to the Techstars Sports Accelerator Powered by Indy, the top sports accelerator in the world. This year’s summit will also include the fourth annual Techstars Sports 2022 Demo Day featuring 13 of the top early stage sportstech companies in the world.
“We are thrilled to partner with One-Zero to create a truly unique event, focused specifically around venture capital and high growth startups in sports and entertainment. We’ve collectively been able to pull together a great lineup of high-profile founders as speakers, and dedicated panels moderated by experienced VCs investing in the space. And of course we are excited for our 4th Techstars Sports Demo Day to take place as part of the official programming of the summit, exposing our current class of founders to the wider community coming to Indy,” said Jordan Fliegel, Managing Director of the Techstars Sports Accelerator and Co-Chair of the One-Zero Summit.
“Indy is the perfect fit for us, they share our vision to exponentially grow the overall One-Zero ecosystem and in doing that launch the Indy Summit this year” said Ross O’Dwyer, Co-Chair of One-Zero. “This combines perfectly with the return of our Dublin Summit (post COVID) later this year. Overall, the support from the local team and access to the largest sports market in the world, the United States, made it an easy decision for our first venture outside of Europe.”
“SportsTech HQ and Indy are thrilled to partner with One-Zero to host this international summit in our city,” said Ryan Vaughn, Indiana Sports Corp President. “One-Zero provided the perfect opportunity to continue Indy’s platform of a global sports tech hub. We are excited to see what this partnership will bring to our city and the greater sports tech ecosystem.”
