SportMeme株式会社
1 known investors
SportMeme provides a data analytics service called DePosta for evaluating athletes and acquiring new talent, assessing player performance and fair economic value. Its technology develops "Player Impact Metrics" for individual player evaluation and "Player Interaction Metrics" for player compatibility, with research published at academic conferences.
Also known as SportMeme Limited · SportMeme, Ltd. · スポーツミーム
Founders & leadership
Investors · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026SportMeme株式会社 (SportMeme, Ltd.) is a Tokyo-based sports-technology company that develops player evaluation analytics for professional sports clubs. Its main service, DePosta, provides analytical data and tooling for scouting and roster decisions: it evaluates the on-field performance of acquisition candidates, estimates their fair economic value, and predicts compatibility between candidates and a club's current squad in order to reduce mismatches in signings.
The underlying research covers two metric families: "Player Impact Metrics," focused on evaluating individual players, and "Player Interaction Metrics," focused on compatibility between players. Parts of this research have been presented as papers at domestic and international academic conferences. The founder describes the company's central question as how to evaluate players neutrally and without bias — distinguishing players whose conventional statistics overstate their contribution from those whose contribution is understated — drawing on academic work on valuing player actions and on sabermetrics-style reassessment of classical indicators.
Commercially, DePosta targets club general managers, who receive large annual lists of candidate players from agents without the information needed to judge whom to sign and at what price. SportMeme computes evaluation data on players across leagues to support those decisions, and has extended beyond roster construction into multiple products at the request of clubs. The company also publishes data-driven analyses of rugby competitions (League One, Bunnings NPC) and technical posts on sports data analysis such as expected goals.
Founding story
Founder and CEO Ryota Nagano traces the company to his own experience as an amateur ice hockey goaltender, where he found the standard save-percentage statistic an incomplete measure of a goaltender's ability because it ignores shot difficulty. While working as a company employee he took part in weekend sports-analytics communities, encountered research on valuing player actions in soccer, and recruited engineer colleagues to help decode and implement the methods, working weekends out of his family home. A resulting paper submitted to the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence received an excellence award, which led him to pursue player evaluation full-time. The company was established in January 2020.
Business model
SportMeme sells a B2B software and data-analytics service, DePosta, to professional sports clubs, which use it to support roster construction and recruitment decisions. Revenue comes from club contracts; the first such contract was signed with a B.League basketball club in December 2022 and was still active in May 2024. The company also partners with other sports-technology firms, such as a 2024 partner agreement with SPORTLIGHT to co-develop a rugby team analysis version of DePosta, and a 2023 capital and business alliance with oneroots covering joint research on player evaluation.
Contracts with professional sports clubs for access to DePosta's evaluation data and analytics tools; the first contract was signed in December 2022 and remained in force as of May 2024. The founder notes the company had no revenue at the time of an early investment decision.
Traction
First paying club contract signed in December 2022 with a B.League club, still in use as of May 2024, with the product line expanded to several products in response to club requirements. Startup databases record a seed stage, a post-money valuation of 533 million yen as of June 2024, headcount of 10 or fewer, and an external record of a DePosta deployment in June 2024. Media and conference exposure in 2024 included NHK Close-up Gendai, AZrena, Japan Sports Week 2024 and Sports Analytics Japan.
Latest developments
In 2024 the company signed a partner agreement with SPORTLIGHT to jointly develop a rugby team analysis support version of DePosta (June 2024), launched an equity crowdfunding raise through Ecrowd (May 2024), and appeared in NHK Close-up Gendai coverage (July 2024). It presented at Japan Sports Week 2024 and Sports Analytics Japan (December 2024), and its CTO took part in a paper-introduction event hosted by the Japan Sports Analyst Association in October 2024. Startup databases list the company at a seed stage with a post-money valuation of 533 million yen as of June 2024 and a headcount of 10 or fewer.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
A small, early-stage Japanese sports-analytics company operating at seed stage with 10 or fewer employees, backed by venture capital and corporate investors. It has paying professional club customers in basketball and works in rugby, and is characterised in startup databases as a startup providing the DePosta player evaluation and acquisition analytics service.
The company positions its proprietary evaluation research as its core asset: "Player Impact Metrics" for individual contribution and "Player Interaction Metrics" for player-to-player compatibility, with results published as academic papers in Japan and abroad. The founder cites an excellence award for a paper on an ice hockey video strategy analysis framework submitted to the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence. DePosta combines performance evaluation with fair-value estimation and squad-fit prediction rather than performance statistics alone.
Technology
Machine-learning-based player evaluation models applied to sports event and video data. The company researches "Player Impact Metrics" for individual player valuation and "Player Interaction Metrics" for player compatibility, and publishes parts of this work at academic conferences. Early work included a framework for strategy analysis from ice hockey video and implementations of published methods for valuing player actions in soccer; the company's technical blog also covers expected-goals (xG) analysis. Databases tag the company with AI data analysis and prediction, algorithms, machine learning, deep learning and data mining.
Go-to-market
Direct sales to professional clubs, developed through repeated interviews with club general managers to shape the product before launch. Visibility is built through conference appearances (Sports Analytics Japan 2024, Japan Sports Week 2024, a JSAA paper-introduction event), media coverage including NHK Close-up Gendai and the sports media outlet AZrena, a podcast appearance on BrainPad's Hakkin Kogyo.FM, and a technical/analytical blog and note account publishing rugby analyses produced with DePosta. In 2024 the company also ran an equity crowdfunding campaign via Ecrowd, which doubled as a public awareness effort.
Professional sports clubs — in particular general managers and roster-construction decision-makers — in basketball (B.League) and rugby (League One), plus club management functions more broadly.
Geography
Headquartered in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, with a single registered office. Commercial activity described in the sources is in Japan (B.League basketball, Japan Rugby League One), while published analyses also cover overseas competitions such as New Zealand's Bunnings NPC.
History
SportMeme was incorporated in January 2020 (registered 2020-01-17) and is headquartered in the Okazaki Building, Shibuya 2-14-13-708, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. Its first product line, EmoQ, aimed to overlay evaluation-based visual effects on sports video to make viewing more accessible; it was shut down after the team concluded it had been built product-out. Following interviews with a B.League club executive, the company pivoted to DePosta, signing its first club contract in December 2022. Reported financing includes a seed round in February 2021 and a pre-Series A round in February 2023, a capital alliance with oneroots in March 2023, and an equity crowdfunding campaign launched through Ecrowd in May 2024. Shareholders on record include W (W株式会社/W fund), Nissay Capital, oneroots and Limes Sports Consulting. In October 2023 the company received a business continuity enhancement plan certification from Japan's Small and Medium Enterprise Agency.
Risks & controversies
The company shut down its first product, EmoQ, after concluding it had been developed without sufficient market input, that demand was limited and that adapting the underlying open-source technology to customers' equipment would have been costly. Disclosure constraints prevent naming its first club customer. Public data is limited: gBizINFO records zero patents, designs or trademarks and two insured employees at the registered office, and detailed funding and financial figures on startup databases are behind paywalls.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 10
launches, deals, and filingsThe company presented at the Sports Analytics Japan conference.
The company's work was covered in an NHK Close-up Gendai broadcast.
SportMeme signed a partner agreement with SPORTLIGHT to jointly develop DePosta, a rugby team analysis support service.
The CEO announced the start of an equity-based crowdfunding raise conducted through Ecrowd (イークラウド).
A research paper on an ice hockey video-based strategy analysis framework submitted by the founding team to the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence received an excellence award, per the founder's account.
The company closed its first business, EmoQ, a product that visually annotated evaluated plays in sports video, before pivoting to DePosta; the founder attributed the closure to an overly product-out approach.
Certified under the Japan Small and Medium Enterprise Agency's business continuity enhancement plan (事業継続力強化計画認定) scheme.
SportMeme entered a capital and business alliance with oneroots and began joint research on athlete evaluation.
SportMeme signed its first club contract, with a B.League basketball club, which was still using the service as of May 2024; the club name is not disclosed.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- SportMeme株式会社sportmeme.co · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does SportMeme株式会社 do?
- Tokyo sports-tech company whose DePosta service scores player performance, fair value and squad fit for pro clubs.
- Who founded SportMeme株式会社?
- SportMeme株式会社 was founded by Ryota Nagano.
- Who are SportMeme株式会社's investors?
- SportMeme株式会社's investors include W Inc..