Orreco announces $2m investment and plans for up to 30 new jobs

Orreco, the Irish sports and data science company, will scale its operations following a $2 million series A investment from Silicon Valley-based venture firm True Ventures.

The investment will enable Orreco to fund its expansion in the United States and Europe, and further develop its pioneering product suite of sports science and data solutions for professional sports.

Orreco uses machine intelligence to find hidden signals in data including GPS and performance statistics to help improve athletic performance and reduce the incidence of illness and injury.

The company’s actionable data solutions have already gained significant traction with professional sports stars in Formula 1, on the PGA tour, and with players and teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, English Premier League and Olympic sports.

The Orreco team includes 16 PhDs who have worked with 35 Olympic medalists since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and published more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Founded in Ireland in 2010 by sport scientist Dr. Brian Moore, now Orreco co-founder and CEO, and hematologist Dr. Andrew Hodgson, Orreco is pleased to announce the opening of its new office in Los Angeles. The company will use the new cash injection for key hires in the U.S. and its Galway, Ireland office.

Orreco’s has also announced that its growing client roster now includes the following:

– NBA team the Dallas Mavericks, owned by tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban
– NBA star Wilson Chandler of the Denver Nuggets
– Pro-golfers Henrik Stenson of Sweden and U.S. Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed

The Orreco technical team has expanded to include Dr. Andy Barr, former head of performance at the New York Knicks and Manchester City F.C., and Dr. Ara Suppiah, team physician to the winning 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup team. Keith Wood, former captain of Ireland’s international rugby team and a former World Player of The Year in that sport, has taken on an executive director role, as well.

Orreco’s early investors include Brian Patterson, former chairman of Vodafone, Kevin Toland, CEO of Dublin Airport Authority and internet pioneer Dennis Jennings, who was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.

Other investors include NYC-based Teneo Holdings; John Moloney former CEO of multibillion dollar nutrition solutions company Glanbia PLC; Pa Nolan former director of Fexco, Fergal Leamy, CEO of Coillte and Tom Killalea, former VP of Technology at Amazon and Orreco board member.

PGA tour and major winning golfers Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell also became investors after experiencing the benefits of Orreco’s services first hand.

True Ventures was the first institutional investor in fitness tracker brand Fitbit. True also has early investments in Athos, maker of smart performance sports apparel, and Peloton, the rapidly growing stationary bike and indoor cycling platform that streams classes into your home, live and on-demand.

“Leveraging machine learning in personalised digital health care is a great opportunity,” said True Ventures co-founder Phil Black. “Orreco is poised for rapid growth in the professional and amateur athlete markets thanks to Brian and his team of veteran sports and data scientists.”

“We are delighted to join the True portfolio given their proven track record in identifying market-leading solutions, particularly in our space,” said Dr. Brian Moore. “The investment will allow us to grow our U.S. presence, further develop our product suite and support ongoing investment in research and development. We will actively recruit additional world-class data and sports scientists, and software engineers.”

Orreco is the first high-performance sport company in the world to partner with IBM Watson, the cognitive computing platform. The Irish company’s actionable data and expertise is fed into Watson to help coaches and professional athletes make key decisions based on the latest scientific research and personalised solutions for nutrition, sleep and training programs.

“This investment also moves us closer to the day when this expertise will be available to amateur athletes, helping us all to prepare for our next sporting event just like an Olympian or a pro-basketball player,” said Moore.

“Orreco allows us to provide our players with timely and customised interventions based on their own data and specific to each athlete’s needs,” said Dallas Mavericks Head Athletic Trainer Casey Smith. “Our players respond well to the individualisation, and it enables them to play a significant role in their own recovery status.”