This is a bet on sports data infrastructure, not a flashy fan app, and the EUR 57 million ticket size makes that point clearly.
France-based SkillCorner has raised EUR 57 million in growth funding from US investor Silversmith Capital Partners, according to FinSMEs. The round is notable both for its scale in sports technology and for what it signals: investor conviction that AI-driven player tracking is becoming a must-have layer in how teams, leagues and media build performance, scouting and analytics workflows.
What SkillCorner sells, and why it matters
SkillCorner provides AI-driven tracking data, a segment that sits closer to “picks and shovels” than to consumer-facing sports tech. That positioning helps explain why the company can attract a sizeable growth round while many adjacent sports and media models remain more cyclical.
The company was founded in 2015 and accelerated its footprint in global soccer after partnering with Liverpool in 2018. Since then it has broadened beyond soccer, expanding into basketball and American football, and has built a customer base of more than 250 organisations worldwide.
SkillCorner’s growth plan is also explicitly transatlantic. It currently counts about 60 customers in the US and is targeting a 50-50 split between the US and the rest of the world within five years. That is an execution-heavy ambition: North America is deep but competitive, and scaling there typically requires both product localisation and commercial coverage.
Why this round stands out (against the trend)
Large growth rounds in sports tech are not routine. This investment is substantial for the sector, and that is the point: Silversmith is effectively underwriting the thesis that tracking data is turning into critical infrastructure for high-performance sport.
In SkillCorner’s case, there are several concrete indicators that it is building a defensible position rather than chasing a short-lived product cycle:
- Scale and adoption: over 250 customers globally, with meaningful early penetration in the US.
- Operational build-out: a team of more than 100 staff, with emphasis on data quality and product innovation, which is where tracking providers win or lose credibility.
- Category signal: the company has been validated by high-profile ecosystem touchpoints, including its earlier Liverpool partnership and participation in NBA Launchpad.
Existing owners reportedly include the NBA, and the new funding adds a specialist growth investor alongside that strategic validation. That mix matters: strategic stakeholders can open doors, but growth equity tends to push for repeatable go-to-market, tighter unit economics and expansion discipline.
Silversmith’s angle: scale a “category” asset
Silversmith Capital Partners, which manages over USD 5 billion, is backing SkillCorner after assessing its business model and long-term vision. The investor has described SkillCorner as a “category-defining solution” with the potential to reshape how sports data is used.
For SkillCorner, the practical implication is clear: accelerate multi-sport expansion and build a North American growth engine without starving the core soccer franchise. The funding should also support continued investment in data quality and product development, which are central to maintaining trust with elite teams and leagues.
The execution risks to watch
The logic is compelling, but the risks are also straightforward:
- Multi-sport expansion risk: moving from leadership in soccer tracking into basketball and American football raises complexity in data capture, validation and product requirements.
- Commercial scaling in the US: hitting a 50-50 geographic split will require sustained sales execution and support capacity, not just product strength.
- Data credibility: tracking is an infrastructure product. Any perceived issues in accuracy or consistency can create churn risk, especially among top-tier customers.
For now, the size of Silversmith’s cheque suggests confidence that SkillCorner’s tracking proposition has moved from “nice to have” analytics to a foundational dataset that teams and leagues will budget for regardless of broader tech sentiment.