INDESUP!, boosting entrepreneurship in the sports sector

Submitted by Cristina Nache… on 24 January 2019

In line with INDESCAT’s strategy, the Catalan sports cluster launched in 2017 INDESUP!, a specific programme to support entrepreneurship within the sports industry. This programme is aimed to contribute to the creation and growth of sports startups and should answer the needs of any entrepreneur, from the development of a business plan to the research of funding.

INDESUP! includes a wide portfolio of services, including a mentoring process with a pool of experts in entrepreneurship and business professionals with experience in companies related to sport; specific training to provide entrepreneurs with knowledge on the sports industry, business skills and sports management, customer approach or technology implementation; connection with the sports sector to identify possible partners in a matchmaking session with consolidated companies; an approach between sports business and students’ final projects from specific Masters in Sports Management to approach university and industry; and connection with investors in an Investment Forum to facilitate their access to financing solutions.

Apart from these services, INDESCAT included in 2017 a specific category on entrepreneurship in the Business and Sports Awards event that is organized by the Catalan Sports Cluster every year since 2012, which provides them visibility within the sports sector.

2018 has been a crucial year to consolidate this programme that up to now has benefited more than 160 startups linked to the sports sector. It is important to highlight that these startups will be the future of the sports industry. Therefore, supporting them means to strengthen the sports sector en the mid and long term. It is also a mechanism to provide innovation and talent to INDESCAT consolidated members, which is one of the objectives of the cluster. In this sense, more than 100 companies and organizations from the sports industry have taken part in any of the INDESUP! activities carried out in 2017 and 2018. Other stakeholders that have been benefited from the programme actions during these two editions are 42 organizations, mentors and investors of the entrepreneurship ecosystem; 76 clubs and organizations linked to sport or physical activity, and 60 students of sports management.

INDESUP! has also an international vocation, both to attract talent in the sports sector to Catalonia but also to facilitate the internationalization of Catalan Startups. Moreover, an international benchmarking is being developed to analyse existing sports incubators with the main objective to settle a specific startups’ incubator in Catalonia in the mid-term.

Finally, it is important to consider that the launch of this programme has enabled INDESCAT to continue growing, since some of the startups that have participated in any of the INDESUP!  actions have become cluster members, such as Aureel, Coach Studio, Spinntech or Suiff. No doubt it is a strong tool to the contribution to the sustainability of the cluster organization’s development.

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