with backing from Seventysix Capital
Core team has decades of experience leading successful sports technology and media companies, including Intel Sports, Turner Sports, and Magic Leap
SANTA CLARA, CA (June 8, 2021) – An all-star team of technology innovators with deep and successful track records in the sports industry announced today that they have come together to launch Quintar (www.quintar.ai), the world’s first AR-centered fan technology company for live sports. The Silicon Valley-based company received its initial funding from leading sports tech venture capital firm SeventySix Capital along with investments from Cowles Company, Assam Ventures, Pragya Ventures, and others. The founders, Dr. Sankar (Jay) Jayaram, CEO, and Dr. Jeff Jonas, President and Chief Business Officer, are serial entrepreneurs who are building a standard setting company for mixed and augmented reality to help enhance and extend live sports game action and increase fan engagement. Their first-of-its-kind platform, called Q.reality, is device agnostic and designed to deliver interactive experiences to fans no matter where they are. To launch it, they have assembled a leadership team that brings decades of experience building and leading successful sports technology and media companies, including Sportvision, VOKE, Turner Sports, NBA Digital, Intel Sports and Magic Leap. “Once Jeff and I really started thinking about sports in AR, it became pretty clear that nobody is doing anything really sticky and meaningful in AR for sports at all,” Jayaram said. “It’s remarkable how things fell into place so naturally, which allowed us to put together an incredible team. We have the relationships, we have the experience and the know how to build successful technology and operations and to do it the right way. We’re really good at that. When you put all those pieces together, that’s a winning combination.” Jayaram, a world expert in the field of Virtual Reality and 3-D visualization, has been very successful in bringing powerful visionary ideas of virtual reality applications and monetization to media, manufacturing, prototyping, smart homes, and augmented reality. His last venture, VOKE, was acquired by Intel in 2017 and became part of the foundation of Intel Sports, where he served as CTO/CPO. Quintar is Jonas’ third startup after leading the previous two, Coach’s Edge and VOKE, to acquisitions. Coach’s Edge, which developed play animation software for broadcasters, was acquired in 1999 by Sportvision. He spent 17 years at Sportvision and is responsible for bringing many well-known augmented reality effects, including the yellow 1st & 10 line, MLB K-Zone, PGA Tour TourCast, to air. He recently left Intel Sports to launch Quintar. “The sports industry is being transformed by entrepreneurs who are developing new technology to make dynamic, new fan experiences,” said Chad Stender, Partner, SeventySix Capital. “Our team at SeventySix Capital is thrilled to be backing Jay, Jeff and the team at Quintar who are creating a true Augmented Reality technology platform by ingesting statistics, sports betting data, analytics and video and then presenting it in a way to wow sports fans.” In addition to Jayaram and Jonas, the core leadership team includes Buddy Scott (Senior Vice President of Platform Products and Experiences), Tom Sahara (Senior Vice President of Production Technologies) and Ramamurthy Sivakumar (Senior Founding Advisor). Scott comes to Quintar after leading global sports and entertainment product strategy for Magic Leap, and, prior to that, business development and operations for NBA Digital at Turner. Sahara spent the previous 20 years with Turner Sports overseeing technical operations for all live broadcasts, including the NBA, MLB, PGA, NASCAR, NCAA and eLeague. Sivakumar previously served 31 years at Intel in R&D, Intel Capital and international business operations. In 2019, he launched Pragya Ventures, a deep incubation fund focused on the next wave of data. Quintar’s platform uses a combination of long range registration to place accurate, dynamic AR content on the field, course or court, and live stereoscopic streaming, allowing content creators and rights holders to deliver personalized, socialized and gamified experiences for fans on mobile phones, TVs and AR wearables at the venue or in their own living room. Solutions like ecommerce, sports betting, games and NFT marketplaces can also be integrated into the platform to help enhance engagement. Fans at the venue, for example, can access live event visualization data via their mobile devices or AR wearables that are synchronized to the playing surface, allowing them to track every moment as it happens. In addition to having access to the live interactive 3D graphic overlays, fans at home also have the ability to transform the live event playing surface into a three-dimensional version of real video that can be live streamed onto table top side by side with the TV broadcast. Experiences driven by the Quintar platform are amplified by a perfect storm of key technologies in cloud computing, gamification, high-speed communication such as 5G and tremendous new capabilities in end-user devices. About SeventySix Capital SeventySix Capital is a sports tech venture capital company that invests in passionate, smart and nice entrepreneurs who are launching game-changing tech startups in the sports tech, esports and sports betting industries. SeventySix Capital also has a Sports Advisory business, its Athlete Venture Group, media arm, and a strategic partnership with Rubicon Talent. SeventySix Capital Sports Advisory is a sports consulting group comprised of an expert team focused on bringing the emerging innovations and technology to sports executives, teams, leagues, brands and athletes. The Sports Advisory works side by side with these change-makers across the evolving landscape of sports, including esports, sports betting, media and social responsibility. SeventySix Capital’s Athlete Venture Group allows players to invest, learn, and work directly with top sports tech startups and entrepreneurs. The firm aims to bridge the gap between athletes, entrepreneurs, and investors by creating opportunities for athletes to become tech investors and for entrepreneurs to access the financial and social capital that professional athletes have to offer. The media arm of SeventySix Capital supports its portfolio companies, runs events, and produces the SeventySix Capital Leadership Series video podcast. Additionally, SeventySix Capital has a strategic partnership with Rubicon Talent, a sports marketing and talent agency based in New York City with a wide range of clients including NFL and NBA stars, Hall of Famers, MVPs, Heisman Trophy winners, Olympic icons, media personalities, and celebrity chefs.
The PGA TOUR and Quintar, Inc., announced today a three-year agreement to expand the TOUR’s augmented reality (AR) experience on mobile devices for fans attending events. As part of the agreement, the TOUR will also receive minority equity rights in Quintar, which is now the Official Mobile Augmented Reality Developer of the PGA TOUR. The TOUR launched its PGA TOUR AR app in 2018 with Quintar coming on as the platform developer in 2020 to create a fresh interactive experience for fans attending the FedExCup Playoffs. With the new agreement, the AR experience will expand to 10 events in 2022 and more events in 2023 and 2024. “The PGA TOUR is excited to expand our relationship with Quintar with a goal of creating a more immersive and engaging tournament experience for fans,” said Scott Gutterman, PGA TOUR Senior Vice President of Digital Operations. “We have seen positive interaction and growth with our previous Quintar AR engagements and look forward to building on the momentum.” The PGA TOUR AR app is available for free exclusively in the App Store. On select holes users will be instructed to turn their phones sideways once they open the app, which will take the device into AR mode and link it to the course. Whether they are sitting in the stands or standing greenside, fans simply point their iPhone toward the tee box or green to interact with the action. The TOUR AR experience will be available on select holes at the following events in 2022: Wells Fargo Championship, AT&T Byron Nelson, the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, Travelers Championship, FedEx St. Jude Championship, BMW Championship, TOUR Championship and Presidents Cup. As part of the rollout, the PGA TOUR and Quintar have aligned with DraftKings, the TOUR’s preferred sports betting innovation operator, who will be a sponsor of the AR experience. “The PGA TOUR has been an incredible partner that is focused on delivering the most immersive and engaging experiences for their fans,” Quintar President and Co-Founder Jeff Jonas said. “Together we are leveraging the powerful Quintar platform and bringing the digital world to life, but we are just scratching the surface. We are thrilled to expand our relationship and look forward to creating new experiences and changing how fans engage with the PGA TOUR.” Powered by Quintar’s (www.quintar.ai) Q.reality live sports and entertainment AR platform, the PGA TOUR AR app for iPhone is made exclusively for fans attending select PGA TOUR events. The AR app is designed to expand the live tournament experience using data provided by ShotLink powered by CDW over signature holes at each tournament. ShotLink, the TOUR’s longstanding state-of-the-art scoring system, captures and reports real-time vital information on every shot, by every player, during tournament competition. The app’s fan-controlled interactive group and player replay experience will feature AR tee-shot trails with apex indicator ball speed, ball and player indicator cards and distance to pin measurements. Fans can capture the AR blended action and share with their friends on social media. ABOUT PGA TOUR By showcasing golf’s greatest players, the PGA TOUR engages, inspires and positively impacts our fans, partners and communities worldwide. The PGA TOUR, headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, co-sanctions tournaments on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Korn Ferry Tour, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR Canada. Members on the PGA TOUR represent the world’s best players, hailing from 28 countries and territories outside the United States (90 international members). The PGA TOUR has long-term domestic distribution partnerships for broadcast coverage on CBS, NBC and Golf Channel and video streaming service on ESPN+. Internationally, PGA TOUR coverage is available across 200+ countries and territories in 27 languages via 43 local broadcast partners, in addition to the digital streaming service platform GOLFTV powered by PGA TOUR. Virtually all tournaments are organized as non-profit organizations to maximize charitable giving, and to date, tournaments across all Tours have generated more than $3.37 billion. Fans can follow the PGA TOUR on PGATOUR.COM, the No. 1 site in golf, on the PGA TOUR app and on social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram (in English, Spanish and Korean), LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, WeChat, Weibo, Toutiao, Douyin and LINE. ABOUT Quintar Quintar, a Silicon Valley-based company, is expanding the boundaries of augmented reality by providing pioneering tech and tools for content owners who want to build awe-inspiring multilayered worlds, beginning with sports entertainment. Their first-of-its-kind platform, called Q.reality, is device agnostic and designed to deliver relevant, data-driven interactive experiences to fans no matter where they are. Quintar has assembled a leadership team that brings decades of experience building and leading successful sports technology and media companies, including Sportvision, VOKE, Turner Sports, NBA Digital, Intel Sports and Magic Leap.
# www.quintar.ai #