App launched by two Romanians in London helps users find partners for a game of tennis or squash
A former professional tennis player and a software engineer passionate about sports, both Romanians, have teamed up to launch in London an app that helps racket sports players find the right partners.<o:p></o:p>
RI Newsroom · Journalist
· Updated · 4 min read
A former professional tennis player and a software engineer passionate about sports, both Romanians, have teamed up to launch in London an app that helps racket sports players find the right partners.
In the summer of 2019, Romanians Robert Rizea and Bogdan Demeny launched in London a free app aimed at helping racket sports players find the best partners for a game of tennis, badminton, table tennis, squash or padel.
The mobile app, called RacketPal, allows users to search, discuss and organize matches with selected partners based on location, availability and skill level. In the short term, it will also include other options such as finding a coach or booking a venue.
So far, the two co-founders invested around GBP 35,000 in their project, with most of the money being used for the app’s licenses and software. Also, a small part was invested in paid marketing for the purchase of users.
“At the same time, perhaps the most important investment was that of the time we spent together with the RacketPal team to create and develop the app. The entire team, which currently has seven active members, voluntarily dedicate part of their spare time for this project,” company representatives told Romania-insider.com.
The app proved to be quite popular among Londoners, gathering so far over 10,000 users eager to find the right sports partners. Players in the RacketPal community have already exchanged more than 30,000 messages and organized over 5,000 matches. This year, the two entrepreneurs want to increase the user base to 50,000 in London alone.
In the long run, the main goal is “to attract strong business and organizational partners that will allow the creation of a unique virtual space, where the entire world of favorite sports will be in the pocket of global users, one click away,” the company’s representatives said.
In other words, the startup plans to expand to other sports as well. Thus, the next step will be to organize a financing round, which would help the startup develop a stronger team and create “the largest sports community platform.”
“We are also getting closer to the first round of angel investment where we want to raise around GBP 150,000, funds that will be used exclusively for team enlargement, product improvement and marketing. This first round of investments will give us the chance to spend even more time and resources to fulfill the mission and vision of RacketPal,” the co-founders explained.
RacketPal is available in both Google Play and App Store. It can currently be downloaded and used for free by users from all over the world, including those in Romania. However, the app is available only in English.
