Nike has acquired TraceMe, a start-up founded by Russell Wilson, a quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks, an American football team, and funded to the tune of $9 million by the Madrona Venture Group and the founders of Amazon, Alibaba and YouTube: Jeff Bezos, Joe Tsai and Chad Hurley, respectively. TraceMe was valued at €60 million at the time. Its product is the TraceMe app, which debuted in 2017 and was intended to let fans engage with celebrities. In 2018, it began providing a new service, called Tally, that allows users to win cash for correct sports predictions. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, but Nike plans to incorporate the app into its own digital platforms. Nike's other recent acquisitions in the digital arena include Celect, for inventory allocation; Invertex, a body scanner for virtual try-ons; Zodiac, a data analytics company; and, back in 2016, Virgin Mega, for the design of gamified apps.

Topics