James Milner, Adam Lallana invest in Indian golfs analytics platform UpGame

Liverpool midfielder James Milner and his former teammate Adam Lallana have invested an undisclosed amount in Gurgaon-based golf performance improvement platform UpGame through their firm White Rose Sports Management.

Founded by former Indian amateur golfer Sameer Sawhney in early 2019, UpGame uses data intelligence, tracks practice and provides a coaching platform to golfers.

"Both James and Adam are legends of the game who have great understanding of what it takes to perform at the highest level and the important role stats play in any sport," Sawhney said. "We're thrilled to have two of the world's most famous athletes join us on our journey."

Co-founded by Milner and Lallana earlier this year, White Rose Sports Management wants to shape the future of Britain's brightest golfing talents.


"From the moment we discussed the ethos of White Rose Sports Management, we wanted performance to be at the heart of everything we did, and this aspect was very apparent in the UpGame team in our initial interactions," Milner said in a statement. "We love their vision of bringing performance improvement to athletes around the world, the team's intense focus, quick execution and deep insights on their users. We are delighted to be a part of their journey."

Sawhney told ET that UpGame is currently used by more than 30,000 professional and amateur players in various countries, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) college teams in the US and federations in Australia, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.

"I was among the top 30 players in India and I realised that while there was a lot of data and statistics available for other sports, when it came to golf, it was terrible," said Sawhney.

More Metrics Due in App
"I was passionate about solving this problem and when I moved back to India from the US, we started working on this app," Sawhney said.

The app's monthly revenue has surged 30 times since January, and it has retained over 85% of its users as it expands across geographies. "Our retention numbers are very high and the response this year has been great. The app is already cash generating," Sawhney said. "This funding will be used to develop the product further by adding more sports and related metrics and help us market the app to a wider audience."

The app offers two annual subscription plans. The basic one costs $99 and is for up-and-coming golfers, while the pro plan costs $299.

"We are looking forward to applying our learnings from golf to other sports and be at the forefront of knowledge and performance enhancement in the burgeoning sports technology industry," Sawhney added.

The app also has tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Danny Conway (formerly of Facebook and Andreesen Horowitz), Hero MotoCorp chairman Pawan Munjal and Indian golfer Rishi Narain's RN Sports Management on its cap table. The 20 people team of UpGame includes athletes, engineers, designers and data scientists in India, Australia, Europe and the US.