Inno Fire: F5 Sports aims to making pitching analytics accessible all ages and levels with patented technology

New York Yankee All-Star closer Clay Holmes tracks his pitches using technology created in Winston-Salem.

During the offseason, Holmes and Anthony Bass of the Toronto Blue Jays use Winston-Salem startup F5 Sports’ pitchLogic, a smart baseball and mobile app.

PitchLogic’s specially made baseball contains patented technology and sensors that can measure almost anything about a pitch – from speed to spin rate to what type of pitch it was. It can tell you how the ball curves or the angle of the pitcher’s arm when the ball is released, said Steven Cukiernik, founder and chief technology officer at F5 Sports.

F5 Sports

Using Bluetooth, the ball – the same size and weight of a standard Major League ball – sends data directly to a user’s mobile app, where pitchLogic’s software will compile analytics and use artificial intelligence to provide feedback almost instantly.

From the time the ball hits the catcher’s mitt, the app displays data in a tenth of a second – significantly faster than the six to eight seconds that CEO Jeff Ackerman said is typical.

“For pitchers, a lot of it is rhythm,” Ackerman said. “When they get the ball back from the catcher, they want to throw again and they don’t want to have to stop for the machine to catch up with them. They never have to do that with us.”

While pitchLogic is being used at every level of baseball, F5 Sports’ target customer is individual players and has found success with 12-to-18-year-olds.

PitchLogic first hit the market in fall 2019 and last fall the startup launched a subscription-based model – $30 a month or $300 a year – that Ackerman said has increased its trial rate. Membership includes the cost of the proprietary baseball, which F5 will replace every six months to ensure accuracy of the sensors.

The startup, which employs 10 people, has raised over $5 million to date and currently has a round open for $1.5 million. Ackerman said that the company also has partnerships in the pipeline it hopes to announce in the fall.

With pitchLogic, F5 Sports hopes to make pitching analytics – which are often only affordable to big budget teams like the MLB or Division I or Power NCAA organizations – accessible to the average, or younger, player.

“The same level quality of data that you would get as a pro, you can now get as an individual,” Ackerman said. “The thing that is unique about pitchLogic is that not only do we provide you with lots of fantastic data but we help you understand what to do with it.”

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