A University of Chicago-born sports recruiting startup just got acquired by Blue Star Sports, a sports software company backed by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
CaptainU, founded in 2008 by UChicago Booth students Avi Stopper and Michael Farb, is an athlete recruitment platform that connects high school athletes, college coaches and events. Players use it to promote themselves to coaches, tournaments use it to promote their events to teams, and coaches can use CaptainU as an end-to-end recruitment tool.
CaptainU says it has amassed more than 2.5 million users across 20 different sports, and has offices in Denver and San Francisco.
Blue Star Sports provides software to youth sports teams and leagues, and CaptainU is the 8th acquisition it has made since launching in April 2016. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Blue Star Sports now has a suite of tech products focused on youth sports, from team communication platforms to video analysis tools.
“Over the past year, we’ve built the leading platform in youth sports technology and we knew we needed to add an athlete-focused recruiting & development platform,” Rob Wechsler, founder and CEO of Blue Star Sports, said in a statement. “CaptainU is the market leader in this space and Avi, Michael and the exceptional CaptainU team have built an amazing platform with millions of dedicated athletes & families.”
Jones invested in Blue Star Sports back in April. It's not the first time the Cowboys owner has spent big on youth sports; he announced plans in January to open a $255 million high school football stadium in Frisco, TX.
As for the CaptainU deal, Blue Star Sports says Stopper and Farb will get new executive roles as chief product officer and chief revenue officer, respectively.
“Blue Star Sports and CaptainU share the same vision for how technology will improve youth sports. We’re excited to join forces and continue our mission to help athletes grow, develop, and play at the next level,” Stopper said in the statement.
Screengrab via CaptainU
