HYPE Capital is the Lead Investor alongside BILD in the Fan Engagement and Monetization Startup Tokabot

HYPE Capital has announced it’s the lead investor in the Israeli startup, Tokabot, the world’s first intelligent fan’s engagement and monetization platform for sports and entertainment, which partnered, amongst others, with betting giant BWIN since the 2018 World Cup, German clubs and the German Football Association (DFB), around the DFB Pokal Final.

HYPE Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund, has today announced its the lead investor in Tokabot. The Fund is actively looking to leverage their unique access to hundreds of sports startups worldwide to make early stage investments. BILD, a fellow investor in Tokabot, is Germany’s leading digital media brand with a strong sports footprint. BILD belongs to Axel Springer, a media and technology company based in Berlin with more than 16,300 employees worldwide.

“We are always looking towards the next generation of sports startups and disruptive technologies,” Uli Becker, Chairman of HYPE Capital Fund. “We believe Tokabot offers a new, scalable experience for sports fans, and that is very exciting for us. We believe the market is ready for their innovations.”

Tokabot is an engagement platform for fans in the sports and entertainment domain with their first successful project being a partnership with betting giant BWIN at the 2018 World Cup. Speaking about the news, Ilan Leizgold, Tokabot co-founder, said: “We have enjoyed working with HYPE and appreciate the invaluable guidance they provide as we look to scale and find new markets. Their latest investment in Tokabot will be used to expand our technological capacity and discover new audiences.”

“Once we reach our funding target, we will support the next unicorns of sports innovation, aiming to capitalize on emerging technology,” said Uli Becker. “We already have vast experience promoting startups in our ecosystem, with forty percent of firms in the London accelerator raising money through our program.”

HYPE’s risk-dumping policy is designed to show investors they only support startups with a strong track record of success, resulting from HYPE Sports Innovation “build-in deal flow” for
the Fund.

Bernd Wahler, Chairman of HYPE Sports Innovation, spoke about the company’s investment strategy: “To reduce the risk for investors we only work with elite startups, whom we know personally and are part of our deal flow. Once we get them onboard, we connect them to corporations in our accelerator program, giving them a leading global platform.”

Speaking about the sports industry’s response to technology, Amir Raveh, President and Founder at HYPE Sports Innovation, said, “Tokabot will continue to embrace technological change in the 2020s, and with HYPE’s capital fund we believe we can create an unparalleled return on investment. I am confident that HYPE’s vision – to impact people’s lives with the power of sports innovation – will become a reality.”