Sports Science Pioneer Orreco Announces $2 Million Investment by True Ventures

Orreco uses machine intelligence to find hidden signals in data including GPS and performance statistics to help improve athletic performance and reduce the incidence of illness and injury.

The company's actionable data solutions have already gained significant traction with professional sports stars in Formula 1, on the PGA tour, and with players and teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, English Premier League and Olympic sports.

The Orreco team includes 16 PhDs who have worked with 35 Olympic medalists since the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and published more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers.

Founded in Ireland in 2010 by sport scientist Dr. Brian Moore, now Orreco co-founder and CEO, and hematologist Dr. Andrew Hodgson, Orreco is pleased to announce the opening of its new office in Los Angeles. The company will use the new cash injection for key hires in the U.S. and its Galway, Ireland office.

Orreco's growing client roster now includes the following:

• NBA team the Dallas Mavericks, owned by tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban
• NBA star Wilson Chandler of the Denver Nuggets
• Pro-golfers Henrik Stenson of Sweden and U.S. Ryder Cup star Patrick Reed

The Orreco technical team has expanded to include Dr. Andy Barr, former head of performance at the New York Knicks and Manchester City F.C., and Dr. Ara Suppiah, team physician to the winning 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup team. Keith Wood, former captain of Ireland's international rugby team and a former World Player of The Year in that sport, has taken on an executive director role, as well.

Orreco investors include NYC-based Teneo Holdings and Tom Killalea, former VP of Technology at Amazon and Orreco board member.

PGA tour and major winning golfers Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell also became investors after experiencing the benefits of Orreco's services first hand.

True Ventures was the first institutional investor in fitness tracker brand Fitbit. True also has early investments in Athos, maker of smart performance sports apparel, and Peloton, the rapidly growing stationary bike and indoor cycling platform that streams classes into your home, live and on-demand.

"Leveraging machine learning in personalized digital health care is a great opportunity," said True Ventures co-founder Phil Black. "Orreco is poised for rapid growth in the professional and amateur athlete markets thanks to Brian and his team of veteran sports and data scientists."

"We are delighted to join the True portfolio given their proven track record in identifying market-leading solutions, particularly in our space," said Dr. Brian Moore. "The investment will allow us to grow our U.S. presence, further develop our product suite and support ongoing investment in research and development. We will actively recruit additional world-class data and sports scientists, and software engineers."

Orreco is the first high-performance sport company in the world to partner with IBM Watson, the cognitive computing platform. The Irish company's actionable data and expertise is fed into Watson to help coaches and professional athletes make key decisions based on the latest scientific research and personalized solutions for nutrition, sleep and training programs.

"This investment also moves us closer to the day when this expertise will be available to amateur athletes, helping us all to prepare for our next sporting event just like an Olympian or a pro-basketball player," said Moore.

"Orreco allows us to provide our players with timely and customized interventions based on their own data and specific to each athlete's needs," said Dallas Mavericks Head Athletic Trainer Casey Smith. "Our players respond well to the individualization, and it enables them to play a significant role in their own recovery status."

About Orreco

Established in 2010, Orreco currently has 15 employees and 10 contracted research scientists with offices in London, Galway, and Boston as well as a network of laboratories in the UK, Australia, South Africa and the US cities of New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orlando.  Orreco works with coaching, performance, and medical staff to make sense of their data. It applies advanced research-driven solutions in science and analytics to deliver actionable insights and strategies that help keep players off the bench and ready to perform. The company has established research partnerships with scientists and physicians at Harvard, University of Houston and Memorial Sloan Kettering, the world's oldest cancer hospital in Manhattan. Orreco is a partner in the IBM Watson ecosystem. Watson is the first commercially available cognitive computing capability, representing a new era in computing.

About True Ventures

Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups. With five core funds and capital under management in excess of $1.4 billion, True provides seed and Series A funding to the most talented entrepreneurs in today's fastest growing markets. With a mission to make the world a better place for entrepreneurs, True encourages each founder's vision and has built resources to empower the employees, families and communities of its portfolio companies. The firm maintains a strong founder community and offers innovative educational opportunities to its portfolio, helping entrepreneurs achieve higher levels of success and impact. With more than 200 companies funded and multiple companies acquired, the current True portfolio has helped create over 8,500 jobs. To learn more about True Ventures, visit www.trueventures.com.

SOURCE ORRECO