Equipe Raises $1.5M Seed Round Led by Game Changers Ventures

Equipe has raised $1.5 million in seed funding, led by Game Changers Ventures. This is the first institutional capital behind our mission to unify fan and customer data for collegiate athletic departments, and it marks a genuine milestone for the company we are building.

The round also brings two new teammates into the fold. We are thrilled to welcome Cameron Korb and Aaron Glidden to the Equipe team as we continue to build out the product and bring it to more programs across the country.

‍

Why This Round, Why Now

The sports industry is at an inflection point. Fan engagement and data analytics have long been treated as secondary priorities, nice-to-haves sitting somewhere below ticket ops and donor relations on the daily to-do list. That is changing fast. The shift from broad-reach marketing to hyper-personalized fan experiences is no longer a future state. It is happening now, and the departments that figure out their data infrastructure first will have a durable commercial advantage.

Equipe exists to build that infrastructure. We connect disparate data sources across an athletic department, clean and deduplicate that data into a single golden record for every fan and customer, and make it accessible to every team in the organization, regardless of technical ability. Revenue, data, and fundraising teams can ask their data questions in plain English and put the answers to work in under ten minutes.

This capital allows us to move faster on the product roadmap and, more importantly, invest in the people doing the building.

‍

On Working with Game Changers Ventures

We have known the GCV team for a long time. Roger Ehrenberg, Ethan Ehrenberg, and Simon Sokol understand the data opportunity in this space at a level that is rare. They are not just capital; they are partners who have seen how value gets created at the intersection of sports, data, and infrastructure.

Roger put it plainly:

"We have been working with Nick Benson and Sajan Gutta from the earliest days. We explored how our shared love of data, infrastructure, fandom, disruption, and sport might help in a landscape short on modern technology but long on opportunity. The result was Equipe.

One of the greatest joys of my venture career is working with smart, mission-driven, highly aspirational founders solving hard problems who are also great humans, and Nick and Sajan fit the bill. The Equipe business sits at the intersection of pretty much everything Game Changers Ventures cares about, and bringing our full capabilities to bear in helping Nick and Sajan build the best business possible is truly a gift.

The future is bright, and Simon Sokol, Ethan Ehrenberg and I are here to make Equipe ubiquitous across the sports and, eventually, the enterprise customer landscape."

‍

What Comes Next

The roadmap ahead is ambitious. We are building fast, and we are looking for people who want to be part of it.

Nick shared: 

"From day one, we believed the sports industry deserved the same caliber of data infrastructure that's transformed retail, media, and finance. This funding is validation that the market is ready, and it gives us the resources to build the platform that every athletic department will run on."

Sajan added:

"We have ambitious plans on our roadmap for the year ahead and beyond. If you're a talented engineer with a passion for sports, this is a unique opportunity to build cutting-edge technology that will impact the entire industry."

If you are working in collegiate athletics and want to see what your data can actually do, or if you are a builder who wants to work on a hard problem in a market that is just starting to wake up, we would love to talk.

‍

About Equipe

Equipe is a Customer Data Platform (CDP) built for sports organizations. The company helps teams connect, clean, and activate their fan and customer data turning fragmented information from ticketing, donor, merchandise, marketing, and media systems into a single source of truth that any team member can act on. Founded in 2024 by Nick Benson and Sajan Gutta and based in Los Angeles, California, Equipe is backed by Game Changers Ventures and works with leading college athletic departments including the University of Texas, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Iowa.

About Gamechangers Ventures

Game Changers Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing at the intersection of sports, media, entertainment, and technology. Led by Roger Ehrenberg, Simon Sokol, and Ethan Ehrenberg and based in New York City, the team combines deep operating experience across sports ownership, media, data, and technology with an operator-first approach. GCV invests early, supports actively, and helps founders scale with confidence through capital, credibility, and connections. Learn more at gamechangers.vc