Upping the game in injury management

Kitman Labs’ Injury Profiler has the backing of Leinster Rugby and premier league soccer clubs in the UK, and is now being trialled by some major league soccer clubs in the US, writes Trish Dromey.

DUBLIN firm Kitman Labs has set out to tackle the multi billion dollar sports industry with hi-tech product, Injury Profiler.

“This is the next generation of injury management, and is the world’s most advanced injury prevention technology. We are already attracting interest from some of the biggest clubs in the world,” says CEO and co-founder Iarfhlaith Kelly.

Launched in August 2013, the product has already been sold to Leinster Rugby, to several premier league soccer clubs in the UK, and is now being trialled by some major league soccer clubs in the US.

Kitman, a start-up company founded in 2012, is formulating ambitious global plans. “We are targeting turnover of €5m by the end of 2016,’’ says Mr Kelly.

The firm came about when Mr Kelly combined his IT capabilities with the sports science skills of Stephen Smith, Leinster Rugby’s injury rehabilitation coach and Jason Cowman, health and conditioning coach with the IRFU.

Mr Smith, a sports science graduate, spent several years compiling information on injury prevention and with the assistance of Mr Cowman, began to develop the outline of a product.

They then sought out the technical expertise of Mr Kelly, chief technical officer at digital agency CKSK. “Competitive start funding of €50,000 from Enterprise Ireland helped us to set up at the Media Cube in late 2012. The product was at concept level, we had a basic prototype and got assistance from the school of statistics at Trinity College to build it into a commercial product.”

In August 2013 Injury Profiler went live and Leinster Rugby became the first customer.

According to Mr Kelly, the Injury Profiler has now been shown to have achieved a 37% reduction in injuries for the team.

“This is an innovative solution which uses the most important training, wellbeing, musculoskeletal and medical variables and enables clubs to make timely interventions and help avoid injury.’’

Following the launch of Injury Profiler, the company raised €475,000 from Angel Investors and from Enterprise Ireland.

The funding enabled the company to start recruiting a team of software engineers and sports scientists. It now has seven full-time and five part-time staff and is aiming to bring the number up to 24 within two years.

The funding has been used for further development of Injury Profiler and has also allowed Kitman to begin to test the waters internationally.

Interest from the US prompted the company to identify it as its biggest market opportunity.

“Injuries in sport are big business. In the US as much as $400m [€293m] a season is wasted in Major league Baseball paying out wages on players that are unavailable to play due to injury.

And in the UK a comprehensive report highlighted that almost £200m (€245m) was spent during the 2013/2014 season on salaries of injured players.”

Kitman has been contacted by clubs in South East Asia and is exploring this opportunity.

Mr Kelly says it is likely the company will embark on a further fundraising round later in the year.