Orreco raises €3m to scale up Irish and US operations
SPORTS performance firm Orreco has raised €3m in an investment round led by True Ventures, the first institutional investor in fitness company Fitbit and an early investor in at-home fitness company Peloton.
The Galway-based firm plans to use the funding to scale up its operations in Ireland, the United States and UK.
Orreco uses scientific methods to generate customised indicators of injuries, optimal training regimes, and recovery strategies for elite athletes. It counts leading USA’s National Basketball Association franchises and players among its clients.
The new investment will enable the 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, according to a statement from the company.
Orreco will hire up to 30 people across its offices in Ireland, the US, and UK, potentially doubling the size of its workforce.
The hires will mainly be based in Galway and Los Angeles where it operates a performance centre.
Orreco CEO Dr. Brian Moore said: “This investment will help is accelerate our growth and further develop our position in the [English Premier League] 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,” he added.
Other investors in Orreco include NBA Hall of Famer and Orreco director Joe Dumars, the co-founder, and CEO of tray.io Rich Waldron, and the co-founder and CSO of Intercom, Des Traynor.
PGA Tour and Major winning golfers Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell also became investors in the company after using its services.
The Orreco team currently includes 16 PhDs who have worked with 35 Olympic medallists since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Its team has published more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers.
Orreco was founded in Ireland in 2010 by sport scientist and now CEO Dr Moore and hematologist Dr Andrew Hodgson.
“It’s such a compelling use of data science,” said Phil Black, the co-founder of True Ventures of Orreco’s application of data solutions and machine learning to sport.