Coachwhisperer receives seven-figure seed investment

The start-up's product enables coaches to communicate better with their athletes. The Thuringians want to be on the market by the World Cup.

The Jena-based start-up Coachwhisperer has completed a seven-figure seed financing round. Beteiligungsmanagement Thüringen led the round.

Philipp Zacher and Julien Then founded Coachwhisperer in 2021. Zacher had the idea for the product - a communication system that coaches can use to give instructions to athletes on the pitch - back in 2015. With the help of the Faculty of Sports Science at Friedrich Schiller University and an Exist start-up grant, the start-up has spent the past few years developing in-ear headphones that athletes can wear in their ears during training. The trainers can then communicate with individuals or the whole team via an app. This means athletes don't have to interrupt their training as often. The headphones also measure important vital parameters such as heart rate and oxygen saturation in the blood.

"Thanks to the funding, we will soon be able to launch our technology on the market in time for the World Cup," says Coachwhisperer co-founder and CEO Then. "This will lay the foundation for us to scale beyond soccer into other sports."