Arnold Palmer once said that golf is “deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.”
Throughout the years, golfers have spent a fortune on expensive lessons, instructional videos and golf clubs with the hope of improving their performance on the course. Now, advancements in smartphone video and AI technology have made it possible to analyze a golfer’s swing without any special sensors or equipment.
NYC startup Sparrow has created an app that does just that. The Sparrow Golf app, which launched in January, can analyze a video of a user’s golf swing from the rear or the front, providing visual feedback about which elements of the swing look good and which need to be adjusted. Joe Chin, the company’s founder and CEO, said Sparrow’s AI technology is based on about 1 million pro golf data points.
Chin told Built In on Tuesday that Sparrow has so far raised $5.7 million through angel investors. The company plans to close the angel round at the end of this year.
The angel round garnered investment from several professional golfers, including Brittany Lincicome, Harold Varner III and Martin Laird.
There are a number of companies competing to create athletic performance apps, but Chin said Sparrow differentiates itself with its advanced AI technology and his experience as a tech founder who has grown and sold three companies.
Chin said he plans to use the new capital to advance the app’s technology in golf, and eventually go on to improve athletic performance across other sports.
“I feel like we’re in the first inning of what is going to come in terms of functionality,” he said. “We want to keep building the capabilities of the AI, as well as cover all of the different skill sets in golf. Right now, we’re starting with the golf swing, but we want to cover putting and pitching and then ultimately start to go into other sports.”
Chin said the company plans to hire for iOS and Android engineers. Next year, he said he plans to hire marketing professionals to introduce the product to more users.
