Capgemini announces Kadho Sports and POP’n link as the start-up winners of its international sport-tech contest: Scrum7

Paris, May 30, 2018 – Capgemini today announced Kadho Sports and POP’n link as the two start-up winners of Scrum7, its sport-tech competition, inspired by its sponsorship status as Global Innovation Partner of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. The winners were among 6 finalists selected by Capgemini’s Applied Innovation Exchanges (AIE) in Paris, London and San Francisco. The finalists went head to head at the VivaTech conference in Paris to battle it out in front of an esteemed panel from the worlds of tech, business and sport. There were three finalists in each of the two categories:

• ‘Performance’ category: Kadho Sports  was selected in the category focused on using new tools and processes to improve the performance of sports teams. AYO and SportEasy were the runners up.
• ‘Experience’ category: POP’n link was selected in the category focused on enhancing sporting audiences’ experience at a venue and across broadcasting platforms. Spalk and Blippar were the runners up.

“We congratulate the winners and are proud to help innovative ventures succeed. Scrum7 saw a number of start-up entrepreneurs taking to the stage to present their sport-tech solutions, and the quality demonstrated by them has been outstanding. Kadho Sports and POP’n link were driven in their preparation and performance, and are truly deserving of the winning spots. With our mentoring, we now aim to enable the winners to apply their sport-tech solutions to improve team performance and enhance the fan experience,” said Lanny Cohen, Chief Innovation Officer, Capgemini Group.

To refine and test their solutions in the run up to VivaTech, each of the six finalists engaged with Capgemini’s AIE experts, as well leading University Rugby Sevens teams: George Washington University in North America, Loughborough University in the UK and l’Ecole CentraleSupelec in France.

Eric Bregand, COO and Co-founder, POP’n link said, “Scrum7 has given us a very professional and innovative framework to articulate our ideas and has presented us with the unique opportunity to network with industry leaders and get global exposure. Our journey through Scrum7 has been a phenomenal experience enabling us to considerably evolve our solution, but most importantly we have established a trusted relationship with the Capgemini team with whom we really look forward to working with in the near future.”

“Capgemini and Scrum7 has given us a unique and powerful platform to develop new technology and has presented us with the opportunity to network with industry leaders and receive global exposure,” said Yasuto Suga, President, Kadho Sports. “Our journey through Scrum7 has been a phenomenal experience and we look forward to working with Capgemini and George Washington University to improve the performance of rugby players across the globe.”

Kadho Sports and POP’n link will travel to San Francisco in July for the 2018 Rugby Sevens World Cup and to attend EXCHANGES, an innovation event held at Capgemini’s San Francisco Applied Innovation Exchange, where they will get an opportunity to engage with World Rugby. As cash rewards, all six finalists received USD 7K, with the two winners receiving an additional USD 7K totalling USD 14K each. Scrum7 will also bring global exposure to the participating start-ups along with continued mentorship from Capgemini’s AIE experts as a networking opportunity with industry leaders.

About Capgemini

A global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, Capgemini is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients’ opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organizations to realize their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. Capgemini is driven by the conviction that the business value of technology comes from and through people. It is a multicultural company of 200,000 team members in over 40 countries. The Group reported 2017 global revenues of EUR 12.8 billion.

Visit us at www.capgemini.com/no-no. People matter, results count.