Sporting a level playing field, Gamatics paves the way

Finding the best possible help for their son Utkarsh who wanted to take up swimming as a sport, Santosh Patil and Shantala Bhat were clueless. However, they came in touch with Sharath Gayakwad — a swimmer who represented India in the London Paralympics, and has won more than 60 international and over 40 national medals — and the three decided to fill the system gaps emerging in the Indian sports ecosystem.

This is how Gamatics was born. Gamatics India is an NSRCEL-IIM Bangalore-incubated company, focusing on providing end-to-end support for sportsmen on a single platform.

It includes athlete profiles, coach profiles, sports specialist listings, ecommerce providing sport-specific training and competitive products, listing of opportunities and training, workout analytics, and performance analytics.

“The major challenge we faced was in terms of revenue. It is not easy to get into revenue mode in the sports sector quickly. We have great ideas, and were sure that it would take time to implement and execute them. Mentors at NSRCEL suggested us to focus on low hanging, high revenue module first, ecommerce providing training and competition-specific accessories and equipment,” Shantala tells DH.

“We adopted a marketplace model. Within six months of operation, we serviced swimmers from 28 states, and became India’s number one swimstore. One of the world’s leading swim brands also marked us as one of its three online partners for India. We are investing back this revenue to develop the long-term solution we were planning,” Shantala says.

“We list details about facilities/training clubs, coaches, sports specialists including nutritionists, physiotherapists, and counselors, on a single platform. Athletes can create their profiles highlighting their achievements. We provide performance analytics reports based on the competitive and workout information. We list all scholarship, sponsorship, and grant opportunities, job opportunities, trainings, and all other opportunities that benefit sportspersons, on the single platform for them to apply for the same with a single click,” she adds.

Launched in October 2014, Gamatics today employs 14 people including the directors and plans to hire at least 40 more in the next fiscal year, based on current business demands and investment pipeline visibility.

The bootstrapped company aims to raise $1 million. “Our immediate requirement is $1 million. We are in discussions with a couple of investors, and are expecting the deal to be closed in a couple of months,” she says.

In terms of expansion, she adds, “We have a framework ready for swimming at the moment, and we would like to expand to more sports, every quarter. We are keen on getting specialists on board who can help us drive our vision effectively and efficiently.”