Sports performance and data science company Orreco will scale its operations in Ireland, the United States and UK following a €3 million (US$3.6 ) million investment round led by Silicon Valley-based venture firm True Ventures.
The new investment will enable the Galway-based company to expand its product, engineering, data science and commercial teams, in addition to accelerating the development of its elite performance solutions, @thlete and FitrWoman.
Up to 30 new hires will be made across the company’s offices in Ireland, the UK, and the U.S., specifically Galway and Los Angeles where Orreco operates a performance centre. The company currently employs 30 people.
Its performance centres provide sports science and data solutions for professional sports teams and athletes including the US basketball NBA sides the Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks, NBA Champion and All-Star Pascal Siakam, English Premier League side Newcastle United and WSL club Chelsea FC Women, USA Swimming, and the Wasserman Sports Agency (Los Angeles ).
True Ventures was the first institutional investor in consumer electronics and fitness company Fitbit. The firm was also an early investor in at-home fitness, media, and hardware company Peloton.
Investors now include NBA Hall of Famer and Orreco Director Joe Dumars, co-founder, and CEO of tray.io Rich Waldron, co-founder and CSO of Intercom, Des Traynor, Jason Calacanis (first investor in $B companies Uber and Calm ), Harry Stebbings of 20VC, NBA agent Todd Ramasar and former VP of Technology at Amazon and Orreco board member Tom Killalea. Enterprise Ireland and serial Irish Investor Pa Nolan were both early-stage investors.
Orreco’s @thlete platform uses machine learning to aggregate multiple data sources and offers elite athletes real-time, actionable insights based off their biomarker results. Athletes can sync their performance data, playing schedule, travel schedule and sleep data.
The FitrWoman App helps athletes track their periods and symptoms, in addition to providing education, training and nutritional guidance through each phase of the menstrual cycle. It is used by athletes and sports teams worldwide.
The company is also trusted by athletes and professional sports teams competing in the WTA, ATP Tour, NFL, MLB, NHL, Formula 1, and PGA Tour.
The Orreco team currently includes 16 PhDs who have worked with 35 Olympic medalists since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and published more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Orreco was founded in Ireland in 2010 by sport scientist and now CEO Dr. Brian Moore and hematologist Dr. Andrew Hodgson.
PGA Tour and Major winning golfers Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell also became investors after experiencing the benefits of Orreco’s services firsthand.
Commenting, Phil Black, co-founder of True Ventures said: “Brian and his team have created best-in-class bio-analytics for athletes and have the customer roster to show for it,” said “It’s our pleasure to continue to support Orreco’s growth as the team expands its offerings nationally and globally. It’s such a compelling use of data science.”
Orreco CEO Dr Brian Moore said: “This investment will help is accelerate our growth and further develop our position in the EPL and NBA working with leading teams, athletes and their agents. We have ambitious growth and recruitment plans for talented teammates to join us. Our strategic investments over the past 10 years in applied data science and machine learning and our dedicated focus on women’s sport, in particular, is now compounding in value. We look forward to exciting times ahead.”
