By Rob Schaefer
Publication Date: 2026-06-05 14:26:00
IBM has long invested in technology startups through its in-house, $500 million venture fund, IBM Ventures. That vehicle is now turning its eye to opportunities in sports technology, IBM’s Global Head of Venture Capital Emily Fontaine told SBJ after an sports tech startup pitch challenge IBM hosted at its Manhattan headquarters Thursday afternoon.
“It’s to better understand the market, what’s out there — and drive real excitement around doing a [proof-of-concept] with these startups,” Fontaine said of the pitch challenge. “Then, how well that goes [informs] investment we would potentially want to put into some of these startups.”
IBM Ventures typically traffics in $500,000-$15M minority investments in seed-stage to Series C startups. Fontaine said the fund does not have a specific carve-out for sports, but, like its investments in other industries (e.g., generative AI platform Writer and deepfake detection company Reality Defender) is looking for the “best startups…