TEMPE – Dibz called dibs on victory at the third annual Sun Devil Athletics x Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University Venture Challenge held last week at Mullett Arena. Arizona State and Sun Devil Athletics was joined by the Arizona Coyotes, Oak View Group and invisionAZ to host the pitch competition.
The first-place winner, Dibz, was granted a $40,000 award and a pilot program, the second-place winner Honorarium was granted a $20,000 award along with a pilot program, and the honorable mention Brave Virtual Worlds was also granted a pilot program.
Dibz is a ticketing platform that allows fans to upgrade their seats after they have arrived at an event. The platform permits fans to text their way to an upgrade through SMS messaging, in under one minute.
Honorarium is an NCAA-compliant social/mobile payment NIL platform that allows fans to compensate student-athletes. As of July 1, 2021, the NCAA gave student-athletes the green light to financially benefit through their own name, image and likeness (NIL), so Honorarium found a way to make it easier for athletes.
Brave Virtual Worlds is a company that helps athletics trainers and physical therapists assess the risk of injuries and produce better athletes by tracking their movement patterns with sensors. The data is collected and processed in real time.
The event featured six different teams who presented their companies to judges at Mullett Arena. Each sport entrepreneur group pitched in a Shark Tank-esque format in front of judges: Sun Devil Athletics Deputy Athletic Director Jean Boyd, Arizona Coyotes Chief Operating Officer Liz Montaño, OVG Mullett Arena General Manager Joe Sheridan and invisionAZ Director Megan Schmitz.
Each team was allowed five minutes to present their company, then given eight minutes to answer questions from the judges.
The other presenters were SM24, Helios Sports and Mantis XR. The six finalists were selected from an original pool of 130 applicants.
The Venture Challenge gives young entrepreneurs the opportunity to build their businesses and make a difference in the business and technology world.
Venture Success
The Global Sport Institute and its partners have provided over $300k in grant funding to sport-focused ventures.
Nextiles won top prize at the Fall 2021 SDA Venture Challenge and has since gone on to be recognized as a Top 10 most innovative sports tech company by the Sports Business Journal and recently closed its $5M seed round led by Drive by DraftKings, with participation from the NBA, Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., Alumni Ventures, SmartSports, Phoenix Capital Ventures and Newlab.
VBAmerica won third prize at the Spring 2022 SDA Venture Challenge and has since gone on to partner with Sun Devil Campus Stores and recently closed licensing deals with the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, University of Southern California, and others.
The first-place winner, Dibz, was granted a $40,000 award and a pilot program, the second-place winner Honorarium was granted a $20,000 award along with a pilot program, and the honorable mention Brave Virtual Worlds was also granted a pilot program.
Dibz is a ticketing platform that allows fans to upgrade their seats after they have arrived at an event. The platform permits fans to text their way to an upgrade through SMS messaging, in under one minute.
Honorarium is an NCAA-compliant social/mobile payment NIL platform that allows fans to compensate student-athletes. As of July 1, 2021, the NCAA gave student-athletes the green light to financially benefit through their own name, image and likeness (NIL), so Honorarium found a way to make it easier for athletes.
Brave Virtual Worlds is a company that helps athletics trainers and physical therapists assess the risk of injuries and produce better athletes by tracking their movement patterns with sensors. The data is collected and processed in real time.
The event featured six different teams who presented their companies to judges at Mullett Arena. Each sport entrepreneur group pitched in a Shark Tank-esque format in front of judges: Sun Devil Athletics Deputy Athletic Director Jean Boyd, Arizona Coyotes Chief Operating Officer Liz Montaño, OVG Mullett Arena General Manager Joe Sheridan and invisionAZ Director Megan Schmitz.
Each team was allowed five minutes to present their company, then given eight minutes to answer questions from the judges.
The other presenters were SM24, Helios Sports and Mantis XR. The six finalists were selected from an original pool of 130 applicants.
The Venture Challenge gives young entrepreneurs the opportunity to build their businesses and make a difference in the business and technology world.
Venture Success
The Global Sport Institute and its partners have provided over $300k in grant funding to sport-focused ventures.
Nextiles won top prize at the Fall 2021 SDA Venture Challenge and has since gone on to be recognized as a Top 10 most innovative sports tech company by the Sports Business Journal and recently closed its $5M seed round led by Drive by DraftKings, with participation from the NBA, Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., Alumni Ventures, SmartSports, Phoenix Capital Ventures and Newlab.
VBAmerica won third prize at the Spring 2022 SDA Venture Challenge and has since gone on to partner with Sun Devil Campus Stores and recently closed licensing deals with the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, University of Southern California, and others.