Whiterock Finance’s James Thompson with Kairos founders Andrew Trimble and Gareth Quinn. Image: PressEye
Having recently opened a US office, Kairos aims to strengthen its team for further global growth.
Kairos Sports Tech has secured £500,000 in investment from Whiterock Finance. The investment will be used to expand the Northern Irish start-up internationally.
Last year, Kairos opened a US office following a £1.5m seed round from Techstart Ventures. This latest investment is expected to further this expansion and create jobs in both its hometown of Belfast as well as the US, Australia and other sites across Europe.
The sports-tech start-up’s current workforce is less than 20 people, but it has already found clients across 10 sports in 12 countries. This includes teams in major sports leagues such as Premiership Rugby, the Premier League and NBA.
“We’ve seen huge growth globally at Kairos over the last few years, which really validates an exceptional and best-in-class platform that can be used by elite teams worldwide in any sport,” said CEO Andrew Trimble.
Trimble, a former rugby international who made 70 appearances for Ireland, brings the perspective of an athlete to the start-up he founded with Belfast businessman Gareth Quinn in 2018.
The duo launched their sports software platform last year. It offers scheduling tools, performance and health analytics, secure messaging and other features on what it describes as a “the sole digital interface between a player and a team”.
This year’s expansion will focus on adding more sales and support talent to Kairos’ lineout. The investment comes from Whiterock Finance’s Growth Finance Fund, which provides loans to established SMEs in Northern Ireland with high growth potential.
“Utilising their combined experience, Andrew and Gareth have created an innovative software solution for a competitive market,” said James Thompson of Whiterock Finance. “Since launching their product in January 2021, they have secured contracts with well-known elite sports teams across the world, which reflects the company’s potential for global growth.”
Late last year, Kairos was among five Northern Ireland tech start-ups named regional winners in the Tech Nation Rising Stars competition, which singles out the UK’s most promising early-stage tech start-ups.
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