PIN Sport App receives CHF 40,000 from Venture Kick to scale AI-driven recruiting in sports
13.02.2026
The sports tech startup PIN Sport App has secured Venture Kick support to advance its recruiting and discovery platform for clubs, players, coaches, and volunteers. By combining structured profiles with data-driven matching, PIN helps sports organizations fill open positions faster and more efficiently, aiming to become trusted recruiting infrastructure across the sports ecosystem.
 PIN Sport App: CTO Mahmudul Haque Qudrat and CEO Pearl Oti-Amoako
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What was the first real signal that your solution worked outside the lab or pitch deck, and what did that moment change for you?
Recruiting and retaining players is a structural challenge in sports, and as athletes ourselves, we had experienced it firsthand. That’s what led us to build PIN in the first place.
The real signal came right after launch. Even without heavy sales efforts, clubs joined the platform, used it to fill open positions, and we saw successful matches within weeks. Soon after, our first Premium customers signed up because the value was clear. That’s when we realized PIN wasn’t just an MVP anymore, it was solving a real problem. From then on, our focus shifted from validation to scaling sustainably.
Can you briefly describe your project and where it stood when you entered Venture Kick?
PIN Sport App is a recruiting and discovery platform that matches clubs with players, coaches, volunteers, and staff through structured profiles and data-driven matching.
When we entered Venture Kick Stage 1, the platform was live with an MVP, early users, and strong qualitative feedback from clubs. However, monetization was still limited and our matching logic wasn’t yet scalable. Our goal was to validate the problem, build traction, and prove willingness to pay while strengthening the technical foundation.
How has the direction of your product/service/product strategy changed since working with the Venture Kick Team?
Venture Kick helped us sharpen and validate our direction. With the initial funding, we invested in growing within the sports ecosystem, securing athlete ambassadors, building federation partnerships, and strengthening relationships with clubs.
Through these interactions and growing traction, we focused on developing a sports-native data model and smarter matching logic, along with Premium features that directly improve recruiting speed, quality, and retention, instead of adding generic community features.
How will the Stage 2 funding help you advance your project concretely?
Stage 2 funding allows us to turn early traction into scalable growth. We’ll further develop our recruiting and visibility features, improve UX and onboarding, and advance our data-driven matching toward validated AI models.
At the same time, we’ll deepen federation collaborations and ambassador partnerships to strengthen distribution. Our goal is to build real platform liquidity and position PIN as a trusted recruiting infrastructure in sports, laying the groundwork for our Seed round.
CTO Mahmudul Haque Qudrat and CEO Pearl Oti-Amoako
Recruiting and retaining players is a structural challenge in sports, and as athletes ourselves, we had experienced it firsthand. That’s what led us to build PIN in the first place.
The real signal came right after launch. Even without heavy sales efforts, clubs joined the platform, used it to fill open positions, and we saw successful matches within weeks. Soon after, our first Premium customers signed up because the value was clear. That’s when we realized PIN wasn’t just an MVP anymore, it was solving a real problem. From then on, our focus shifted from validation to scaling sustainably.
Can you briefly describe your project and where it stood when you entered Venture Kick?
PIN Sport App is a recruiting and discovery platform that matches clubs with players, coaches, volunteers, and staff through structured profiles and data-driven matching.
When we entered Venture Kick Stage 1, the platform was live with an MVP, early users, and strong qualitative feedback from clubs. However, monetization was still limited and our matching logic wasn’t yet scalable. Our goal was to validate the problem, build traction, and prove willingness to pay while strengthening the technical foundation.
How has the direction of your product/service/product strategy changed since working with the Venture Kick Team?
Venture Kick helped us sharpen and validate our direction. With the initial funding, we invested in growing within the sports ecosystem, securing athlete ambassadors, building federation partnerships, and strengthening relationships with clubs.
Through these interactions and growing traction, we focused on developing a sports-native data model and smarter matching logic, along with Premium features that directly improve recruiting speed, quality, and retention, instead of adding generic community features.
How will the Stage 2 funding help you advance your project concretely?
Stage 2 funding allows us to turn early traction into scalable growth. We’ll further develop our recruiting and visibility features, improve UX and onboarding, and advance our data-driven matching toward validated AI models.
At the same time, we’ll deepen federation collaborations and ambassador partnerships to strengthen distribution. Our goal is to build real platform liquidity and position PIN as a trusted recruiting infrastructure in sports, laying the groundwork for our Seed round.
CTO Mahmudul Haque Qudrat and CEO Pearl Oti-Amoako