London Sport-backed Sport Tech Hub supports more than 130,000 Londoners to access physical activity

In the three years since its launch Sport Tech Hub has helped more than 130,000 Londoners access physical activity in the capital.

The findings which come as part of a new three-year review of the ground-breaking London Sport-backed SportTech innovation programme help to show the significant progress made towards bridging the gap between traditional physical activity organisations and the capital's thriving tech innovation sector in recent years.

The report also demonstrates the increasing confidence with which publicly-funded sport and physical activity agencies are approaching private sector tech innovation, highlighting almost 40 individual project pilots between tech start-ups and agencies including Local Authorities, NHS Trusts and National Governing Bodies of Sport.

Announced in 2016 and launched the following year, Sport Tech Hub was developed by London Sport as part of wider efforts to capitalise on the increasing role of elite and performance-related SportTech and to bring the benefits of those innovations closer to efforts to increase population-level physical activity levels. 

In the three years since the first cohort of Sport Tech Hub start-ups was announced, the programme has supported 31 start-ups and early stage tech companies with training, mentoring, and access to London Sport's network of sport and public sector organisations.

Among the results identified in the report, Sport Tech Hub: Our Impact, were findings that start-ups backed by Sport Tech Hub have raised more than £4m of public and private funding and been provided with more than 3,000 hours of training and development.

Commenting on the report's findings Alex Zurita, London Sport Specialist Advisor - Tech for Participation, said:

"We established Sport Tech Hub to address a gap in our sector. Looking back at the past three years, I think we can be really proud of all we've achieved - not least in supporting the development of more than 30 increasible tech ventures, all of which have shown real dedication to helping people to get more active across the capital.

"We are now determined to make sure this progress continues, starting with the fourth cohort of Sport Tech Hub start-ups joining the programme shortly."

The findings are published at a time where awareness of the positive ability of technology and digital solutions to impact Londoners' physical activity behaviours has never been higher as the impact of covid-19 continues to make itself felt across the capital and around the world.

The full Sport Tech Hub: Our Impact report can be found here.

The fourth cohort for Sport Tech Hub is currently open for applications. For more information on how to apply, click here.