DashTag, which created a sports sensor for amateur team sports players, received a 250.000 euro investment from a private investor and a Leapfunder campaign. The money will be used to build the community and further develop the product.

The Leapfunder round of 100.000 euro was completed in January this year. The other 150.000 euro was added by an undisclosed informal investor.

In November, during the HightechXL Demo Day, CEO Epco Berger announced DashTag was looking for a 700.000 euro funding round, and a 2.5 million euro investment by June 2016. According to CMO Dirk van den Berg, that wasn't a premature call. "We're still looking to raise that money, however, as we're making hardware, it took some time to convince investors. We first worked hard this summer on completing our prototype, under the radar. We wanted to finetune our product and proposition with the customers. Now it's finished and we're back at the table."

Right now Berger is in the US on a business trip.

Professional vs amateur sports teams

DashTag has a clear focus on team sports, starting with young amateur football players (ages 12-20). A youth optimized mobile platform offers each user performance stats such as their high intensity sprints, total distance covered, number of ball contacts and shot power.

To further boost adoption among amateurs, DashTag is in talks with several professional football clubs in Europe as both potential customers and partners. These professional clubs typically think of adopting DashTag in their own youth academy as well as facilitating adoption within the local amateur clubs they collaborate with.

Image: DashTag. From left to right: Dirk van den Berg (CMO), Epco Berger, (CEO) and Cliff de Roode (CTO).