Engate
Leading the New Era of Sports Sponsorship

The sports technology market in Asia is currently experiencing a remarkable surge in growth. This region has witnessed a significant rise in investments and advancements across various sectors, including athlete performance tracking, virtual and augmented reality experiences, sports broadcasting and media, wearable technology, and e-sports. These cutting-edge technologies have become increasingly prevalent and have revolutionized the sports industry in Asia.

While the sports technology market in Asia has experienced remarkable growth, it is crucial to acknowledge that athletes still face challenges in pursuing their dreams, largely due to inadequate funding. While sponsorship deals can be a valuable source of financial support, providing funds for training, equipment, travel expenses, coaching, and other necessary resources, many athletes, especially those competing in less popular disciplines or lacking significant exposure, often struggle to secure sponsorships and require additional assistance. This is because sponsors often tend to focus on popular sports or high-profile athletes who already have a substantial following and media attention.

Engate, a revolutionary financial empowerment platform, aims to bridge the gap by offering athletes an innovative solution to raise funds and unlock their full potential. With its unique features and functionalities, Engate creates a space where fans can actively participate in supporting their favorite athletes, going beyond the limitations of traditional sponsorships.

“We are Japan’s largest service provider when it comes to the sports tech space,” says Koichiro Kido, CEO of Engate Inc. “Our goal is to create a platform that connects athletes, fans, and anyone interested in sports. This helps them celebrate fantastic plays, victories, and everything else the sport offers.”

The Two-Part NFT Service

By providing athletes with a financial empowerment platform, Engate revolutionizes the way athletes receive support and funding. It creates a dynamic space where fans can be actively involved in the success of their favorite athletes while athletes can secure a more sustainable and diversified financial future. Engate's innovative approach not only addresses the existing gap but also paves the way for a new era of athlete-fan interaction, empowering both parties to thrive together in the world of sports.

Engate has established contracts with over 150 teams, providing athletes with a new potential revenue stream. This includes various Japanese national and university sports teams, as well as professional club teams, including 70 percent of the Japanese professional men’s basketball teams. Fans can purchase Engate points by various mobile payment services such as Google pay, Apple pay, and Rakuten pay as well as credit cards and major convenience stores in Japan, to provide financial support to their favorite athletes/teams. Additionally, through its point conversion system, one of Japan’s major credit card companies' points can be exchanged for Engate points, enabling sports fans to support their favorite athletes/teams.

Its NFT service consists of two parts—the Engate Reply Collection and the Reward Collection. Unlike other NFT services in the sports arena, Engate's service enables direct communication between fans and athletes to be converted into NFTs, providing fans with a unique asset. In addition, it has partnered with local governments to contribute to regional revitalization efforts by offering its platform for the benefit of all the parties involved including local sports teams, local sports fans, and local businesses. For one of their local revitalization programs, fans who exceeded a certain threshold of gifting amount received birthday bouquets of flowers crafted by their favorite athletes, with customized colors and arrangements, as well as personalized birthday messages sent directly by the athletes themselves. Those bouquets of flowers were sent to the fans with vouchers that had those athletes' names on them as the senders. This program was subsidized by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and saved many flowers that would have been wasted due to “flower loss” caused by Covid-19.

One of Engate's greatest strengths lies in its technological capabilities, including the creation of an API that enables scalability when entering new markets or industries. Moving forward, it plans to leverage this API to develop a startup strategy that will make it easy for a company to deploy to other sectors with minimal effort.

Devising Innovative Strategies

Engate has also introduced a new sponsorship model, the Engate Sponsorship Model, seeking to disrupt the current sports sponsorship industry by devising innovative strategies, allowing sponsoring companies to assess ROI accurately. This model offers unique opportunities for exclusive engagement with sports teams’ fans, focusing on sponsored activities specific to the team’s fan base or target audience.

Sponsors can provide team specific Engate points to fans who meet specific criteria, which can be used as funds to support those teams/athletes. The program also provides sponsors with valuable insights into their target market and customer preferences via customer responses obtained through its platform as well as their direct customer inflow. The program motivates fans to actively participate in various activities, events, or promotional campaigns, so that fans can support their favorite athletes/teams without their own funds. Fans earn Engate points by fulfilling the customer actions expected by the sponsoring companies, such as purchasing sponsoring companies’ products, dining at sponsoring restaurants, contracting with sponsor credit cards, and so on.

The Relentless Innovation Journey

Engate also provides athletes and teams with a media platform where they can showcase their skills, achievements, and personality, increasing their visibility and appeal to potential sponsors. This enables them to pursue their dreams and excel in their respective fields.

As Engate continues to push the boundaries of innovation, its disruptive influence on the sports technology industry is set to endure. With its relentless pursuit of excellence, commitment to athlete empowerment, and dedication to fan engagement, Engate is driving a transformative shift in how sports are experienced, connecting athletes and fans in ways previously unimaginable. The playing field for Engate expands beyond Japan, opening up opportunities for potential global collaborations on the Engate Sponsorship Model. Additionally, Engate is planning for global equity financing as part of its Series B equity round scheduled in 2024. The future of sports technology belongs to Engate as they lead the charge towards a new era of athletic performance and spectator engagement.