Ikigai Ventures, the €20m (£16.9m/US$20.5m) seed-stage venture fund spearheaded by Maltese entrepreneur Eman Pulis has announced its first investment, joining the Series A funding in Swedish sports tech company Triggy. Founded in 2017, Triggy’s state-of-the-art products make it possible for sportsbooks, affiliates, sports teams, and media companies to effectively acquire, engage and re-target users by delivering relevant content at the right time. Triggy’s products are available in multiple languages through dynamic, context-aware Widgets, standalone branded live-score apps, and as an integrated SaaS solution.
Pulis, who is best known as the founder and CEO of SiGMA World, which organizes events for the gaming, AI, blockchain and medtech sectors around the world, said: “Ikigai Ventures was created specifically to help boundary pushing businesses in emerging sectors accelerate their development and growth. Thanks to the network SiGMA has built up over the past ten years we are able to offer financial investment and connect companies to hundreds of potential clients. This is the model we are adopting with Triggy, a company that is leading the way in using machine learning and AI in the sports betting space.”
Stefan Thunberg, co-founder at Triggy, said: “Triggy is dedicated to supply the gaming industry with effective data-driven products that connect sports data, live odds and user insights to engage and provide a better user experience for fans and bettors. Our unique personalisation platform and products continue to evolve. With this new investment from Ikigai Ventures, coupled with access to SiGMA’s incredible network, we are now well-placed to take Triggy to the next level.”
Having been established in late 2021, Ikigai Ventures has also onboarded two new partners with decades of venture capital investing experience. Vinícius Moraes de Carvalho and Daniele Calzolari, who joined in February 2022, are leading the process of identifying and concluding new investment opportunities on behalf of the diverse board of investors who have now joined Ikigai Ventures.
About Triggy’s deal, the team commented: “Our investment in Triggy means a lot for us: it’s the first company we decided to invest in because it ticked all our boxes in terms of development of the business, the expertise of the founding team, and profound added value that Ikigai can bring to them. Starting already this month, we have identified and implemented initiatives to bring Triggy to the next level; we are convinced that their success is deeply connected with our success, and we will work as one team for the next years”.
