Marquee raises $6.5m to expand AI analytics platform for pro sports
Marquee, a New York-based startup building an AI-native intelligence layer for professional sports organisations, has raised $6.5 million in total funding. The round was backed by Axel Springer SE, Welltech Ventures, Apex Capital, AnD Ventures, 97212 Ventures and JCP. Proceeds will be directed at accelerated research and development, specialist hiring across AI, engineering and data science, and the opening of commercial offices in the US and the UK.
The company is already live with more than 20 professional clubs and federations across multiple countries. Named clients include Tier 1 clubs in the Premier League and Serie A as well as Major League Soccer organisations. Having launched initially in football, Marquee says it is now developing a basketball platform in collaboration with teams from the NBA and EuroLeague, with a broader multi-sport rollout planned for later in 2026, including American football.
What the platform does
Rather than sourcing new data, Marquee positions itself as a connective layer that pulls together tracking data, event data, video, scouting reports and internal performance metrics that clubs already hold across disparate systems. Proprietary machine learning models process those inputs and surface outputs such as curated player shortlists, 360-degree scouting reports, tactical breakdowns and market analysis, all rendered in natural language.
Chief executive Dean Bracha said the core problem the platform addresses is a structural one. "Most organisations are only leveraging 4 to 15 percent of the information they already have," he said. "The industry is data rich and decision poor, not for lack of effort, but because no recruitment and analytics team has the hours to work through everything that comes in." The company says its system is designed to integrate into existing front-office workflows rather than replace the scouts and analysts who use them.
Market context and competitive landscape
Sports analytics has attracted sustained venture interest over the past several years, driven by growing data volumes and pressure on clubs to sharpen recruitment and performance decisions. Established players in the space include StatsBomb, Hudl and Wyscout, which was acquired by Hudl in 2021, while a number of AI-native challengers have emerged offering large language model-powered interfaces layered on top of existing data infrastructure.
The distinguishing claim Marquee makes is orchestration rather than data collection. By sitting across systems clubs already operate, it aims to reduce integration friction and shorten the time from raw data to decision. Whether that positioning proves durable will depend on how quickly larger platforms move to offer similar connectivity features natively.
Steven Berelowitz, Partner at Welltech Ventures, said the firm backs the Marquee team's "vision and technical foundation to help define how AI is used across professional sports," describing the ambition as building "the foundational intelligence layer for how clubs evaluate talent, build squads and prepare to compete."
The $6.5 million total funding figure is modest relative to some sports-tech raises, and the company has not disclosed a post-money valuation or individual round tranches. The combination of a media-aligned backer in Axel Springer and specialist sports-tech investors in Welltech suggests a strategy that values distribution partnerships alongside pure capital. Marquee's next milestones to watch will be named customer wins in basketball, a disclosed contract or revenue figure, and the pace of its planned US and UK office build-out.