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Stupa Analytics - co-founded by Megha Gambhir - is one of the world's largest sports analytics companies, specializing in table tennis. Stupa Analytics is behind the analysis which are on display during the fourth edition of IndianOil Ultimate Table Tennis 2023.
With a big vision and a steady growth, Stupa Analytics has associated itself with mutliple federations around the world, resulting in its technology being used extensively all across the globe.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, co-founder Megha Gambhir opened up on how Stupa Analytics was established, their history over the years and their ambitious plans.
Read excerpts from the interview below:
Q: How was Stupa Analytics founded? Was it spontaneous or something that was well thought out?
A: I would say the idea was actually birthed because of a problem which was being faced. So the company is actually founded by me and Deepak collectively. Deepak is my husband who's the other co-founder. He also has been an athlete as well as a coach and has spent almost two decades in this industry. And he has been the former coach for our Indian national team as well.
So when this idea came in, it was because of the real problem statement he was facing, which was basically a lack of performance data and a lack of information in terms of how to improve your performance with objective data and information.
And that's where I think he was struggling a lot - to find this information, just not like within India, even outside, he tried to figure out if he can get some tools, some tech available to solve this.
However, I come from a technology background and have spent 13-14 years in technology and I think during that time, when he requested me to look into this problem, I really felt that this is literally a bigger problem out there, just not in India, but even withr players or coaches across the globe and just not in table tennis, but in other sports as well.
That's where I would say the 'aha' moment for us [was] when we thought that we should start working on this vision, this problem statement as well. This is basically to help players and coaches and the people who are working on the performance of a player, to start working on this, and then help them in their performance data, alongside giving a lot of clarity to the federations, to the coaches and to the sponsors as well to scout the players with the right track record, with the right historic information and so on.
So that was the intent when we started because the vision was very clear that we wanted to solve or we wanted to help the players and coaches with a lot of in-depth analysis which can be used to enhance their performance.
Q: How has the process been of getting federations and other interested parties to become users of Stupa Analytics?
A: Actually, I would say that when we started with this, we started with a B2C model, which I like, which is purely for players and coaches. However, we soon pivoted to a different business model and because there was a lot of inbound interest coming from the federation to solve the bigger problem which they are having, basically managing their tournament management or doing their league management, managing their media and data, which is what we realized that they do not have sufficient platforms or tools for them to manage the basic information. These are player seeding rankings, which is, for example, memberships or their licenses.
So we were talking about player performance data, which is a second level of information. But at a one step back, there was a lack of administration and management itself, which was there at the level of federations because of which they are not able to just manage their basic information, which is more related to entry collection, registration, licenses and memberships.
And because of this inbound interest, we realized that we're talking about player performance data, which could be a luxury to the federations and players from that manner.
But one step before they're not even able to record all of their players into the system. They do not have their seeding rankings maintained properly. They do not have their membership and licenses.
And because of this inbound interest came from Sweden and Norway, at that point in time, we thought of expanding our portfolio and rather than just doing performance analysis and video analysis, we started helping them with a one-step before, which was basically managing their entire players, tournaments, clubs, the streaming production. And alongside the data layer, through artificial intelligence.
That was, I would say, the moment wherein it just was not difficult at all to sell to the federations because that was a need or that was basically the requirement the B2B customers like federations, clubs, and league organizers were having.
And for us selling it was very, very easy because we were actually selling a solution to them and we were selling a vision to them with which they can actually create a very seamless integrated platform of managing tournaments.
Then from there, they can stream and produce tournaments, and the data layer of performance can be added. So, that's how we have actually acquired customers like federations and players and coaches and so forth.
Because initial one year of our company was a little difficult when we were purely focusing on performance data. It was a B2C sort of model. It took us a little time to figure out that this is not the right business model.
We pivoted into a B2B model, and started helping them, the federations, into their admin management and into solving their efficiency through the loss of information or data.
Then, there was no looking back after that because the federation literally found the solution they were looking for. That eventually was helping them in the acquisition of the right information and right data about the players and managing the media and the performance data and so on.
Q: Has any player or athlete personally thanked you for a significant rise in their performance after using Stupa Analytics?
A: Yes! We are a homegrown technology company, purely working like full-stack solutions in sports tech. However, I think in just one year of inception, we were working with 40-plus top world-ranked athletes.
We were working with world-leading federations, including World Table Tennis (WTT) and International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). There were a lot of world-ranked players who were participating in the Tokyo Olympics also, were using our services.
Many of them have actually improved their world rankings almost by 40 percent in the course of a year. Some players from Sweden, Slovenia, France, and from Puerto Rico have been involved with us. They've jumped up in their rankings by 20 or 30 places. This was because they used performance data, alongside the federations.
We have so many good testimonials coming from them, wherein they are so happy to see the system and to see how it actually enables them to manage all of their data, alongside creating monetization opportunities and scouting opportunities for them. I think it was quite an emotional moment as well when we saw a lot of players performing at the Tokyo Olympics using our services.
We have gotten a medal in the para team as well in Brazil, which was like a moment for us because, I mean, they got two bronze medals while they were using our services.
One of the players from Germany had one silver medal. There were many achievements we have had and good testimonials from the players who have literally jumped up their rankings and even from federations who have literally found this very useful.
In no time, you can see how we have progressed. We have, being an Indian company, partnered with 15-plus global clients, as of now. And now we are expanding very fast into other sports as well. We are picking up badminton and paddle with the interest coming from the global federations.
Q: What are Stupa Analytics' future plans when it comes to Indian sporting leagues and the Indian sporting ecosystem?
A: So the thing is that, I think we were quite a lot focused on the global market during our initial years. Now, we have full focus on the Indian market. So, we are actually starting with one of our biggest collaborations, which will be out soon, probably in the month of August with the school sports ecosystem, along with some company that's very deeply working in the sports sector for the school games.
So, we are actually going to the grassroots with that and trying to create or build profiles of the upcoming talent or the grassroots players, to help them collect the information at a really, really early stage so that they can improve bang on or on the right sort of improvement areas. That's one of the things we are working on.
Alongside this, I see a huge potential in India in terms of digitizing the entire ecosystem of sports. And that's where we have been talking to the Indian government as well, wherein I think digitization is a main agenda in the Indian ecosystem at the moment and having sports as a very integral part of it. The kind of values it is adding to the Indian ecosystem, by adding a lot of players' layer on top of it.
We are going to create a good ecosystem there and that's where we are working. We are trying to figure out ways to get on to the Indian federations, the clubs, the league organizers, to start using our platform so that they are managed digitally, along with the media, along with the performance data. Then they can have the journey only upwards and onwards from there.
Right now, we are in talks with the TOP scheme (TOPS) within SAI and also with the Indian Federation wherein we are planning to implement our solution for the Indian athletes, and Indian teams as well. I think this is likely to happen very soon, but it's already under conversation at the moment.
