THE STORY BEHIND SPORTUP

SportUp was born out of the activities of Victoris, the consortium of sports & technology experts at Ghent University, managed by Kristof De Mey. With the help of like-minded people, he launched SportUp as a community of Belgian sport startups. On April 20, 2017, over 50 participants were present at the kick-off event in Ghent. That is where the accelerator idea was introduced and feedback from the crowd was gathered. Afterwards, it became clear that both imec.istart and Sport Vlaanderen had strong interest in focusing on sport startups too. And so, the three organizations joined forces and launched the first Flemish (Belgian) sports tech accelerator to support entrepreneurs who are willing to make a change.

Team
What we offer

SportUp is a Flemish (Belgian) sport startup accelerator to support entrepreneurs, startups and companies that are working on innovative technologies which are relevant to Flanders and can change the health, performance or media side of sports. SportUp is the first and only sector-specific support program for sports tech startups in Belgium. Our structured approach helps startups turn their idea into a prototype and their prototype into a successful and internationally scalable business.

Every year, SportUp selects and supports over 10 sport startups in their progress towards launching a successful product and becoming a healthy sports tech business with a positive impact on the country’s economy and society.

1
Ideation, inspiration and information
2
Preparing early-stage teams to startup
3
Accelerating growth for mid-stage startups

SportUp is only possible thanks to a large team of passionate people. Want to know more about our team?

Meet the people behind SportUp