Global Sports Innovation Center (GSIC), a non-profit founded in 2015, has a new member in Spanish Starvie.
Spanish racquet brand Starvie, as we learn from the International Padel Federation (FIP), has joined the Global Sports Innovation Center (GSIC), a non-profit founded in 2015, with headquarters in Madrid and, since 2021, an office in Singapore.
The GSIC’s purpose, as the LinkedIn profile reads, “is to democratize innovation, enabling sports organizations to evolve into sustainable, digital businesses, while pioneering technological advancements in areas such as Team and Player Performance, Fan Engagement, Smart Stadiums, Business Insights, Sustainability, Education, Sponsorship, Esports, Media, Fitness, and Health.”
Its membership is somewhat shy of 100 brands, most of them in the US, Europe and South America, although it extends to Australia, India, China and South Africa as well. Among the prominent members are Adidas, Under Armour, Panasonic and Porsche.
One of the founders was a fellow member Microsoft, which appears to have an exclusive deal for the non-profit’s tech and describes it as a “three-way collaborative initiative between private, public, and academic partners” and a “driver of job creation and economic growth.” Other early supporters included the Madrid Regional Government, Camilo Jose Cela University and Real Madrid. The initial investment amounted to €17 million.
The GSIC’s chief objectives, according to Emprendedores (reporting back in 2015), were to develop projects that would attract national and international subsidies of more than €4 million as well as private risk capital. According to Microsoft, it was to found 50 start-ups and support more than 200 others in the first five years. According to the its own website, the GSIC now has more than a hundred start-ups “in acceleration.”
The GSIC offers seven things:
- a business network
- applied research, innovation and training
- a showcase (exhibitions)
- start-ups and companies
- Microsoft “partner solutions”
- digital-transformation services
- “sport for good” (inclusivity, sustainability, etc.)
Its GSIC Institute offers an online educational program called “AI in Sports” (administered by a Spanish company called Founderz), a master’s program in the digital transformation of sports entities and “custom training programs.”
The GSIC celebrated its tenth anniversary with a gala in May, held a summit for Asia-Pacific in Singapore this month and is holding another summit in Madrid on Nov. 5-6.
