Flywheel Fund, our member-managed capital fund, today announced a $50,000 investment in ProBook Sports. Founded by Andre Harakas, ProBook provides an all-in-one platform to streamline team management and athlete development. The new capital will help ProBook further develop the app’s features and expand its customer base.
Harakas is a first-generation college graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University and a former football player. He started developing ProBook Sports when he noticed that athletic directors and coaches were forced to cobble together multiple apps to meet their needs.
Brian Hatton, Venture Partner for Flywheel Fund, commented, “ProBook Sports provides an end-to-end platform for coaches to engage with their team members in aspects ranging from video and analytics to nutrition and calendar management. In a market where the dominant player is focused on providing video to very large, professional organizations, ProBook is poised to fill a gap with the thousands of other teams that can utilize their management software.”
Earlier this year, Harakas won a spot in the competitive gBETA program from nationally ranked accelerator gener8tor. He was also named Entrepreneur of the Year at Indiana Wesleyan.
Pat East, Executive Director of the Mill, said, “I first became aware of ProBook from Jason Whitney at IU Ventures. He said I had to check out this great startup from a student at Indiana Wesleyan. Then in spring of 2021, an hour after taking his last exam as a college senior, Andre pitched ProBook at our inaugural Crossroads Collegiate pitch competition. He took home top honors, beating out other startups from across the state. We saw a great opportunity there for Flywheel Fund to get in early with an up-and-coming sports tech startup. ProBook provides a needed solution and has a smart strategy for going to market.”
“We are excited to have the Flywheel Fund invest into the #probookfamily,” Harakas said. “The funds are going to ramp up our already growing customer pipeline. Thank you, Brian Hatton, Pat East, and Jason Whitney for hosting the pitch! Flywheel did not just invest in us, but provided two amazing mentors from the organized sports space. We look forward to learning from Regan and Anthony! #bethepro.”
The organized sports team vertical market in the US and Canada is estimated at $1.78 billion. ProBook is closing a $350,000 round with participation from Skypoint Ventures, Flywheel Fund and other notable investors, including Jim Zarvos. ProBook has already secured brand ambassadors from celebrity figures working in that space, including Stevie Johnson Jr, a former NFL receiver turned head coach, and Dwane Joshua, an ABA semi-pro head basketball coach. The ProBook platform can be used for any team sport.
ProBook is the first investment for the second round of Flywheel Fund. We launched the first round of Flywheel in 2020 with 11 investors and $120,000. The second round launched in 2021 with 49 investors and $640,000.
Learn more about Flywheel Fund.