Israeli Sports Tech Firm Pixellot Raises $16M To Accelerate Solution In Hard-Hit Sector

Israeli sports production firm Pixellot announced on Wednesday that it raised $16 million in a financing round led by existing investors and with the participation of a new backer, Israeli investment firm Altschuler-Shaham.

Founded in 2013, Pixellot’s patented technology solution streamlines production workflow by deploying an unmanned multi-camera system in a fixed location, with additional angles as required, to cover the entire field, offering a stitched panoramic image. Pixellot’s solutions enable professional and amateur sports organizations to cover and monetize their events at an affordable price. Computer vision algorithms monitor the movement of the players, and automatically select highlights sports fans look for.

The Petah Tikva-based company has said it sold over 2,000 systems to sports organizations around the world.

Pixellot indicated that the fresh funding will go toward accelerating sales and marketing activities to address the growing need for safer, more cost-effective solutions given the evolving sports landscape in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The health crisis “has immensely impacted the sports industry and has forced teams and leagues to re-evaluate the way they operate going forward,” the company said in a statement. “Many leagues and teams rely on ticket sales, concessions, and merchandise as their primary source of income. With fans not able to attend events, teams not only face the challenge of losing their key means of generating income for the near future, but also the connection with their fan base,” Pixellot added. Most impacted are women’s leagues, lower divisions, and niche sports, it said.

“As sports fans around the world eagerly await the return of their teams and leagues, it’s more important than ever to provide the ability for sports organizations to broadcast content,” said Andy Howard, partner at Shamrock Capital, an investor in Pixellot. “Pixellot’s high-quality, cost-effective automated sports production solutions will benefit content providers, teams and viewers, particularly as fan attendance remains limited to preserve the health and safety of players and fans.” 

Pixellot CEO Alon Werber said that “automatic production is a solution that will eventually lead to better engagement between teams and fans.”

“With 8,000 fields and venues and 40,000 live games produced each month, Pixellot is clearly the leader in this market,” said Adam Ben Dror, Head of Alternatives Department at Altschuler-Shaham. “Pixellot’s breadth of product offering and global capabilities truly set them apart and we are confident that enabling Pixellot to charge ahead and meet the growing demand for its products globally will bring great value to the sports world and to our investors.”