This startup wants to reawaken the child in you. Here’s its playful idea

Sports are a universal language because they give birth to team spirit – “a simple yet powerful notion that forges deep bonds between individuals.”

Such is the philosophy of Playo, a sports community app that seeks to connect amateur athletes, venues, and vendors. Available on iOS, Android, and Windows phones, it helps users reserve spots at nearby venues, find coaches, and connect with potential competitors of equal skill levels.

It covers sports like basketball, football, tennis, table tennis, badminton, swimming, and even pool. And, being an India-based startup, it doesn’t forget cricket. Users can also book coaches through the app if they want to raise their game. People in the community can track their games and earn “karma points” that can be redeemed on bookings and in-app purchases. Venue information also includes prices, amenities available at the facilities (like parking, equipment, etc.), and business hours.

However, at Playo’s heart lies team spirit and community. It’s not a fantasy football team – people use the app for recreational sports – but it’s not a workout tracker either.

“We don’t pretend to be a fitness app,” laughs CEO Gauravjeet Singh. Their attitude toward developing the app was to simplify as much as possible, inspired by the way children approach sports.

“A number of us played some [kind of sport] growing up,” says Gauravjeet, referencing the startup’s five founders. “We were very happy when we were playing as kids, and it seemed unfair that sport is restricted to professional athletes,” he says. Sports, in their view, begin as fun and then are slowly replaced by diet and fitness regimes later in life. Playo wants to take it back to the basics.

Team-building

The idea for Playo sparked in October 2014, when Gauravjeet was working at an investment banking firm. About a month later, he met four like-minded people – Daanish Suhail, Amit Kumar Roushan, Karthik Igoor, and Umashankar AN – who were looking to work on similar things. The global sports market, after all, is at an estimated US$1.5 trillion, and sports lovers command a great deal of passion.

“[We founders] sort of fell in love with each other,” Gauravjeet explains. The apps soon followed – an Android app in May and iOS and Windows apps in August. Since then, they’ve added about 11,000 users, and users have created 950 sports teams. They have signed up with 45 venue partners, and about 150 bookings per day take place through the app.

Playo is specifically designed for the non-professional and specifically targets those who want to participate in some kind of sports team in his or her city. The app seeks to help venues, many of which did not use online technology for their bookings. Playo helps integrate the venues into the app with its own software as a service, which venues can utilize to manage their bookings.

Playo’s biggest challenge lies in distinguishing itself in a country saturated by sports apps. One called Orobind connects users with personal fitness coaches who make house calls.

Lack of enthusiasm in India for taking part in sports isn’t a problem, but there’s a lot of room to grow in the recreational sports market. Getting people to play is of national interest, as well. Playo’s approach is perhaps more like that of League Republic’s, which helps users set up team schedules, find venues, and keep track of game statistics.

Get your game on