Arkero: The AI-native OS for Professional Sports Businesses
Our investment in Arkero
Today we’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Shivaas Gulati, Vamsi Narla, Daniel Shi, and the entire Arkero team as they build an AI-native operating system for professional sports businesses.
AI Belongs Everywhere, Including Sports
We have invested behind founders using AI to transform industries from logistics to compliance to manufacturing. But one massive market has remained surprisingly underserved: professional sports.
The global live events and professional sports industry exceeds $1.4T annually. Yet behind the scenes of even the most valuable franchises, you’ll find operations held together by spreadsheets, email chains, and disconnected point solutions. Marketing teams export CSVs to run campaigns. Game day planning happens across dozens of uncoordinated departments. Revenue projections rely on institutional knowledge that walks out the door when key employees leave.
This isn’t a technology access problem. It’s a technology adoption problem. Sports organizations have historically been conservative technology adopters, often run as family businesses despite their billion-dollar valuations. But several forces are converging to change this: the undeniable momentum of AI, new ownership bringing operational discipline, and the explosion of new leagues and sports demanding modern infrastructure from day one.
Arkero: The AI Executive Partner for Sports Teams
Arkero is building an AI system that serves as an executive partner for professional sports businesses. Rather than replacing existing tools, Arkero sits on top of the systems teams already use (ticketing platforms, CRMs, email marketing tools, data warehouses) and adds intelligent automation, planning capabilities, and insights.
Arkero initially targets two critical areas for their customers: event operations and revenue optimization. On the operations side, the platform centralizes cross-department coordination, automates task management, and provides insights on attendance and staffing. On the revenue side, it helps sales teams uncover hidden sales and upsell opportunities within their existing leads and accounts. And it’s working. Early partners including the Seattle Sounders and Seattle Reign project over 50% improvement in efficiency around matchday planning alone.
Operators Built for Operators
What sets Arkero apart is the combination of the team’s technology chops and their firsthand understanding of sports business operations. Founders Shivaas, Daniel and Vamsi spent nearly a decade together at Remitly, helping found and building the company from its early days through a successful IPO on Nasdaq. They bring the operational rigor and product discipline of a world-class technology company to an industry desperately in need of improved technology capabilities.
And they’re building for a problem they have themselves. After leaving Remitly, Shivaas acquired a stake in Southend United FC, a 119-year-old English football club competing in England’s National League. Helping run the club gave him an insider’s view of just how broken the operational infrastructure is across the industry and where teams stands to benefit. When the Arkero team sits across from a club executive, they speak the language. They’ve lived the chaos of coordinating across departments, the frustration of siloed data, and the challenge of driving revenue without adding headcount.
It's exactly the kind of team we love to back: world-class builders tackling a problem they know firsthand. And with the founders and early teams having built at Google, nvidia, Adobe among others, it is going to be an awesome team to join (psst, they are hiring in both Seattle and Orange County!)
Let’s Go!
We’re proud to be partner with Arkero and team alongside our friends Roger Ehrenberg at Game Changers Ventures, Alexis Ohanian at 776, David Tisch at BoxGroup, and strategic investors including Adrian Hanauer of the Seattle Sounders and Seattle Reign.
Given the breadth of technology adoption opportunity and the immense value of the sports industry, we’re excited to see Arkero help drive the industry forward.
For more on Arkero, visit their website at arkero.ai.
Garuda Ventures is a B2B focused pre-seed fund, most often leading a founder's initial round of financing as their first true believer. The firm aims to be a founder's first call as they navigate their way from a deck and a dream to building a category-defining company. To learn more, visit garuda.vc