The Success Story of str8bat, a NASSCOM CoE Incubated Deeptech Startup

Deep tech, IoT-enabled analytics platform to aid player performance in Cricket and other sports

Data has become the new currency for businesses today, as technologies are harnessing huge amounts of data, extracting meaningful and strategic insights to improve productivity, enhance efficiency or simply solve a challenge.

While data science and analytics have made their way into the more commonly known industries like finance, manufacturing and healthcare, its application in sports is relatively new in India. Specifically, data-driven insights for sports analysis, performance improvement and optimisation is expected to be a game changer.

Caption: A glimpse of the IoT-enabled platform providing actionable insights & player metrics

Cricket is one of the most popular sports world over, with India being one of the most profitable markets. The Indian Premier League (IPL) alone was valued at $5.3bn in 2017 by financial advisory firm Duff & Phelps. In addition, the ICC World Cup and other leagues like IPL, BPL and CPL continue to attract a lot of attention and high-level talent. Cricketing academies, some established by former and current cricketers, are nurturing youngsters from every corner of the country. Technology can aid them in a significant manner to analyze performances of players better, and startups are capitalizing on this huge whitespace to provide cutting-edge solutions.

str8bat, a sports-tech startup, has developed a wearable device, which provides data-driven insights to coaches and players instantly and is helping them aid a player’s performance metrics. Founded by Gagan Daga and Rahul Nagar, str8bat aims to democratize technology for accessibility and deriving specific insights.

Caption: Gagan Daga and Rahul Nagar, cofounder of str8bat

Cofounder Gagan Daga says, “We are using a combination of IoT, data science, AI, motion capture along with a solid understanding of physics to capture motion without cameras.”

Str8bat’s Smart Sticker is a wearable patch, which can be attached to a bat. It provides instant, actionable insights on a player’s form and game including Swing Speed, Wagon Wheel, Average Bat Angle, Batsman Pitch Map, Impact Speed, Grounded Shots, Balance Index and 3D Visualisation.

With each shot, 1,200 data points are captured, triangulated, assessed and produced on a smartphone. More so, with each shot measuring only 5KB of data Str8bat’s data takes up limited space on a device.

The product was officially launched in August 2018 and has since been used by more than 700 players, with close to 60,000 shots captured.

Currently incubated at the NASSCOM Center of Excellence AI-IoT, Str8bat is harnessing the myriad benefits of this one-of-a-kind facility. Recently, Str8bat was also named as one of NASSCOMs Top 50 Innovative Product Startups.

Rahul Nagar says, “We’re glad we were chosen to be part of this programme. NASSCOM’s CoE is a comprehensive setup with the right kind of hardware, tools and infrastructure that product startups usually cannot afford on their own. Additionally, we have been able to connect with relevant industry partners, investors and government officials, and attend events like NASSCOM Technology Leadership Forum for enhanced visibility.”

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