An up-and-coming football platform for amateur players is receiving support from successful professionals. The Cologne start-up Prematch, which successfully launched an app of the same name for amateur football last year, has the family office around the successful coach Jürgen Klopp (FC Liverpool) as well as the German national players Serge Gnabry (FC Bayern Munich) and David Raum (RB Leipzig) won as investors, as the FAZ learned in advance. As business angels, the three will bring “their expertise and passion” to the young company, which was launched in 2021 by a team of founders and whose app has been available throughout Germany since August 2022.
Last year, the app was used by at least one player in 94 percent of all amateur teams, the company says. Since this season, Prematch has also been available for youth players in Germany. “Just like for me at SV Glatten, almost all footballers’ careers began in an amateur club,” Klopp is quoted as saying, in whose family office his son Marc plays a leading role: “Without the great work of the people in the clubs, my own career would be turned out completely differently.”
On the Prematch platform, every amateur player receives a profile with their own performance data and statistics. Players also find out their market value. Prematch says that it has set itself the task of “preserving football’s values of authenticity, emotionality and positivity and making the opportunities of digitalization accessible to amateur football”.
Alexander Armbruster Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 32 Uwe Marx Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 74 Oliver Schmale Published/Updated: Recommendations: 17
The start-up initially received 1.7 million euros from investors such as Gorillas founder Jörg Kattner. In May of this year, 2.4 million euros were added, with the Schadeberg Family Office as well as Ralf Reichert, co-founder and CEO of ESL Gaming, and the entrepreneur Verena Pausder being among the investors. So now three well-known faces from professional football have been added.
