A Mayo sports software company clinched a sizeable investment from private investors and Enterprise Ireland to roll out its software internationally. Sportlomo has developed a sports software platform for amateur sport. It is used largely by sports in Ireland but also has users in the UK, USA, and United Arab Emirates. The company is a spin-off of 21st Century Computers and Web Design in Castlebar which was established by Seamus Kyne and Vivienne Kyne in 1997 at Moneen in Castlebar.
Sportlomo has kept a low profile as it concentrated on ‘land-grabbing’ all the top sports in Ireland. It is better recognised in Ireland as Sports Manager. The Kynes have bootstrapped their company to this point, but now with this latest investment they intend to ramp up quickly and plan to grow staff numbers. Seamus Kyne says: “Our most immediate task is to take on software developers as soon as possible.” Software developers are not easily found in Mayo but this up-coming software company hopes to attract developers quickly.
Sportlomo is used by many of the big names in sport in Ireland, IRFU, the five rugby provinces, Ireland Hockey, Dublin GAA, Cork GAA, and 17 Soccer leagues. Irish Basketball and Volleyball Ireland are also customers. Locally the platform is used by Mayo GAA, Mayo Schoolboys/girls Youth Soccer, Galway Football Association, and Connacht Rugby.
Vivienne Kyne explains how their business has evolved over the years. “As a small company we have to be able to re-invent ourselves. We established a computer training business and then added web design in 2000. Many of our web design clients were sports organisations and we could clearly see a gap in the market for low cost, efficient, software to help these sports manage their fixtures, results, tables, referees, and teamsheets. We opted to develop our own cloud software platform and are now growing internationally.”
The company also develops sports websites and boasts the largest stable of sports websites in Ireland. The company has attracted funding from two Angel Networks – Bloom (Dublin ) and a new west of Ireland angel investment group, West by North West Syndicate (WXNW ). Backed by Enterprise Ireland, the start-up has been heavily supported by Mayo Local Enterprise Office and Westbic.
