By Andy Marston, Sports Pundit
This week marked the first-ever Como Ventures Pitch Day, an intimate gathering of investors, founders and operators examining technologies across health, software, machine learning and performance.
The morning opened with a conversation on the Como Ventures programme and how, together with The Players Fund, Como 1907 is exploring what happens when a football club functions as a genuine venture platform rather than a traditional rights holder.
Leaders from companies including Apple, Revolut, Uber and Eight Sleep joined founders from Connectome, Collecto, Eoliann and Wayla as they presented their work and discussed how elite sport can serve as a proving ground for early-stage innovation.
Two panel sessions, focused on the experience economy and the future of health and wellness, provided further space for additional founders, including Lombardy-based Serenis and YDUN, to share their progress and perspectives.
The event flows into a private lakeside lunch before an exclusive VIP matchday experience for tonight’s Serie A fixture against U.S. Sassuolo Calcio. Cesc Fabregas’ Como 1907 currently sit sixth in the table.
Why It Matters:
This was the first time we could give people a proper look at what we’re building with Como Ventures, so the ambition was to reflect the breadth of where a programme like this can go. The companies in the room spanned neuroscience, climate tech, mobility and collectables, reflecting how a club environment can touch far more categories than sport normally admits.
For Como 1907, the value comes in several layers: gaining small, sensible equity positions in promising companies backed by serious investors, improving internal operations through real pilots, strengthening relationships with commercial partners, and creating a disciplined funnel so innovation doesn’t arrive in fragmented ways across the club. Our role as a third party helps keep both sides aligned and removes some of the friction that can creep in when clubs and startups try to collaborate directly.
For the founders, we’ve mapped specific assets the club can offer; from product testing and internal feedback loops to warm introductions to blue-chip partners. Each agreement is bespoke, designed to create a genuine win-win rather than the heavy-handed equity swaps you can sometimes see in sport.
It’s early days, but today was an important step in showing what we believe this model can become.
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