Waterspeed: Building the Data Layer for a Still-Offline Watersports Economy
Plus Aaron Rodgers and Venus Williams re-defining the Athlete Economy in 2026
Hey founders, funds, & friends 👋,
A warm welcome to the 95th edition of the “Mehtta Ventures Dubai” investment digest newsletter, your weekly news digest about Sports / Media Tech startups, digital / business trends shaping our lives and curated venture investment opportunities.
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Dear Friends & Partners, Happy New Year 2026!
A quick note to start the year — and first, thank you.
To those of you who have already sent in your PACTs, we truly appreciate the confidence. We’re actively engaging with you now as we move through LP agreements and next steps.
A small but fitting observation as we kick off 2026.
Age, it turns out, is just a number.
This month, Aaron Rodgers, at 42, led the Steelers into the NFL Playoffs by winning AFC North — while also being a co-founder of AthleteAgent, a Pressplay Capital portfolio company that’s already seeing renewed visibility and momentum.
And Venus Williams, at 45, is about to compete at the Australian Open.
Which makes us smile, given that the average age of the Pressplay Capital team is 48. Experience compounds. Let’s go.
We hope 2026 has started well for those of you back at your desks. On our end, it’s shaping up to be a packed year — including Web Summit Qatar, the Global AI Show in Riyadh (February), and upcoming visits to India to meet with some of the region’s largest sports streamers.
Before diving into execution mode, one source of inspiration worth sharing.
Over the past week, I finished reading The Mamba Mentality. What stayed with me wasn’t a dramatic quote or highlight moment — it was how simple (and hard) Kobe Bryant’s mindset really was:
Show up.
Do the work.
Obsess over the details.
Repeat.
No shortcuts. No entitlement. No fixation on outcomes.
He focused relentlessly on what he could control — the inputs — and trusted the process to handle the rest. That’s the energy we’re carrying into 2026:
In investing. In building. In health. In creating things that actually last.
On the platform side, Pressplay Sports Network has been extremely well received since launch.
At a high level, PSN is adtech infrastructure purpose-built for sports streaming:
For advertisers, it provides access to premium, high-attention sports audiences across OTT via a unified workflow, better targeting, and transparent reporting.
For publishers and sports streamers, it unlocks incremental demand, improved monetization, and operational scale — built for live sports, real-time delivery, and millions of concurrent viewers.
This operating layer strengthens our investment lens at Pressplay Capital — giving us live insight into distribution, monetization, and demand-side behavior across the sports ecosystem.
We’re also encouraged by the quality of inbound sports-tech opportunities coming our way. One example we’re currently evaluating is PLYR — a platform centered around athletes rather than teams, aggregating live broadcasts, betting odds, merchandise, tickets, and services around the specific athletes fans choose to follow. It’s an interesting signal of where fan behavior and personalization are heading.
More to share soon.
For now, thank you again for the engagement, the trust, and the conversations so far. We’re excited about what we’re building — and even more excited about doing it with the right long-term partners alongside us.
Today’s line-up
Waterspeed: turning “offline water” into a connected performance + safety layer
What Waterspeed is (today)
Where they are now (traction + proof)
Why this could become bigger than “a tracking app”
A signal worth paying attention to: SailGP
The business model
The raise
Pressplay Capital lens: why we’d lean in (and what we’d pressure-test)
My take
And Action!
Waterspeed: turning “offline water” into a connected performance + safety layer
Most connected fitness categories have already been “digitized.” Run clubs have Strava. Gyms have dozens of trackers. Cycling has an entire stack of devices, sensors, and platforms.
Watersports don’t. That’s the core wedge Waterspeed is attacking: “In a world of connected fitness, water is still offline”
And it’s not a small niche. 100M+ global participants, with ~10M performance-driven users actively looking for better tools, and—critically—no platform connecting the entire ecosystem (athletes, clubs, brands, governing bodies).
What Waterspeed is (today)
Waterspeed positions itself as the leading performance-tracking app for watersports with sport-specific metrics (not just generic GPS tracking).
It tracks speed, distance, strokes, foiling efficiency, tack/jibe metrics, heart rate, and environmental conditions across 30+ watersports, with Apple Watch + Garmin + iOS/Android/Web connectivity, and AI-powered recommendations for locations, conditions, and session plans.
Where they are now (traction + proof)
Healthy Revenues for a niche startup at their stage
400K+ downloads across 200+ countries
100K active users
2.3M activities recorded
They also show industry validation: “trusted by elite athletes” and a stated IP value of $1M for initial development.
Why this could become bigger than “a tracking app”
Waterspeed’s ambition is to evolve from a single app into the “connection tissue” of watersports—a hub where activity data, community, brands, clubs/schools, and governing bodies converge.
Enthusiasts want precision + real-time coaching
Clubs/schools want engagement beyond in-person training
Brands/regulators want integrated data for innovation + safety + community
If they can make that triangle work, this becomes less “fitness app” and more category data layer + engagement OS.
A signal worth paying attention to: SailGP
They highlight a relationship with NorthStar SailGP as “Official Technology Supplier” and show a note of “3% participation at 10M USD post-money” plus “Impact League” association.
Even without over-reading it, the directional signal is: they’re already in the conversation with premium properties, which matters if the long-term play involves clubs/federations/events.
The business model
This looks like a hybrid consumer subscription + B2B platform:
Short-term: expand compatibility, acquisition/retention, and community engagement (Challenges, Events, Explore+).
Mid-term: expand B2B monetization—tools for clubs, brands, events, governing bodies.
The raise
They’re asking for a $1M bridge at a $10M post-money valuation with 12 months runway.
Use of funds is heavily execution-oriented (product + marketing + events + ops), and they call out meaningful spend on growth (including digital ads).
Pressplay Capital lens: why we’d lean in (and what we’d pressure-test)
Why this fits our “sports tech in an AI era” thesis:
It’s performance + data, not content hype.
It serves a high-intent, high-spend user base (watersports enthusiasts are not casual free users).
The AI angle is practical: recommendations tied to conditions + training plans (where/when to train matters a lot in water).
The upside case is B2B distribution (clubs/schools/federations) that can compress CAC and create defensibility.
What I would diligence hard before writing a check:
Unit economics by channel: Paid vs organic acquisition, payback period, churn cohorts, and what’s driving the current revenues (subscription mix, pricing tiers).
Data rights + defensibility: What’s proprietary vs replicable by Garmin/Strava/Apple ecosystem expansion?
B2B proof: Any contracted pilots with clubs/schools/federations, and whether those buyers view this as “nice to have” or “operationally necessary” (training + safety).
Precision credibility: Are their sport-specific metrics “truth-grade” for coaches/elite athletes, or “consumer good enough”? (This determines whether the platform can own the category.)
MENA/India relevance (Pressplay edge): Where are the strongest water communities we can activate (UAE, Europe, India, GCC sailing/kitesurfing, clubs, resorts, marinas), and can we drive partnerships that become distribution moats?
My take
Waterspeed is one of those rare sports-tech companies where the wedge is clear, measurable, and already monetizing (real revenue, real activity volume).
The bull case is compelling if they can move from “tracking” to “ecosystem OS”—because the watersports world is fragmented by default, and the winning platform is the one that owns the data layer + the community layer.
If the diligence shows healthy retention + improving CAC efficiency, and even early B2B pull, the current raise could be a very rational entry point for Pressplay Capital—especially if we can help accelerate partnerships across the UAE and coastal hubs.
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Brilliant piece … while I am not a huge water sports (or even a water) person, I do agree that some of the devices that I have seen and used (occasionally) are indeed rudimentary for tracking water-related activities.
And wow, returning to Australian Open at 45! That’s such a massive thing.