Manchester-founded Rezzil has closed a $10m (£7.5m) strategic growth round, adding Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jobe Bellingham and putting coach Phil Kenyon to a shareholder register that already includes the Premier League. The company will open offices in London and Chicago and plans to double headcount to around 100 within 12 months.
Rezzil was set up in Manchester about a decade ago by Adam Dickinson, Andy Etches and Gareth Thatcher. It first made its name with virtual reality training for professional footballers, and its analysis tools now appear in broadcast coverage including the BBC's Match of the Day.
The company is now repositioning around what it calls "movement intelligence": turning athletes' physical movement into data that teams, leagues, rights holders and broadcasters can analyse and sell.
The round
The $10m was raised as strategic growth funding rather than a lettered round. Rezzil did not disclose a valuation or the size of individual cheques.
City AM reported that Bellingham, 21, led the round. His investment comes with a wider strategic partnership with the Bellingham family, under which Rezzil will supply technology for the family's future digital projects. Kenyon, who has coached golfers including Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, also invested.
Existing backers the Premier League and Simba Investments followed on. The company's earlier investors already included a group of current and former athletes: Thierry Henry, Cesc Fàbregas, Vincent Kompany (through Plankton and Smallfish Ltd), Tyrone Mings, Michail Antonio and the rugby players Anthony Watson and Marcus Smith. City AM also listed Tennis Australia's AO Startups and the NBA Launchpad programme among Rezzil's backers.
The cap table now has a mix of league, corporate and high-profile individual shareholders. Few early-stage sports tech companies in the UK have this many strategic holders.
New management
Rezzil has a new leadership team. Sion Colley is chief executive and Paul Mann is chief financial officer. The pair previously ran Angstrom Sports, the sports betting data business that Entain bought in 2023, and both invested in Rezzil as part of a strategic consortium.
Jake Loos, previously an executive at Hawk-Eye and the NBA, has been appointed to lead the company's expansion in North America from the new Chicago office.
Use of funds
The money will pay for international expansion and a larger product team. Rezzil expects to roughly double its global headcount to about 100 people over the next year.
The company also plans to move further into consumer gaming. It is building a range of mobile titles on its movement intelligence technology and says several strategic partnerships are being developed. It intends to expand its consumer team before a series of product launches.
What's next
The raise adds to a run of activity in northern England's tech sector. Manchester-based companies have closed several growth rounds this year, among them payments firm Ryft's £20m Series B.
Rezzil faces two tests: whether its US push turns league and broadcaster relationships into recurring revenue, and whether its consumer games bring in a second income stream. Those results will shape the terms of any future institutional round.
Original source: BusinessCloud — https://businesscloud.co.uk/news/bellingham-invests-in-manchester-sporttech-rezzil/ (additional reporting: City AM — https://www.cityam.com/bellingham-leads-10m-fund-raise-of-premier-league-backed-tech-firm-rezzil/)
