Assistant Coach Receives One Million Euros to Mark the World Cup

The Cologne-based SportTech startup CoTrainer has closed a seed funding round of one million euros. The round is led by kicker ventures, the investment arm of the sports media brand kicker. In addition, numerous investors from the sports and startup scenes are participating, including Teamgeist Capital, superangels, Comvest Digital AG, and several prominent business angels.

With this fresh capital, the company plans to further develop its platform, expand its team, and strengthen its position as a digital solution for amateur soccer clubs.

Amateur soccer is not digital

While professional clubs have long relied on digital systems, many amateur clubs still organize their day-to-day operations via messaging groups, spreadsheets, and in-person discussions. Training schedules, player management, and communication often take coaches and volunteers many hours each week.

Amateur soccer involves an enormous amount of passion and an enormous amount of administrative work that falls on volunteers... We’re building the platform that will relieve coaches and clubs of this burden.

Claudius Ludwig, CEO & Co-Founder of CoTrainer

CoTrainer aims to consolidate these processes onto a single, centralized platform. The company combines club organization, training planning, and player development with the goal of significantly reducing the administrative burden in amateur soccer.

Under the motto“Less coordination. More soccer,” the goal is to give volunteers more time for the actual club life.

Over 150 clubs are already using the platform

According to the company, more than 150 clubs are already using the solution, even before the comprehensive product relaunch planned for summer 2026. The new capital will be used to expand the platform’s functionality. At the same time, CoTrainer is expanding its team: Marco Giesen will take over as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead the platform’s technical development.

In the long term, the company aims to establish itself as the leading platform for amateur soccer clubs in German-speaking countries.

kicker ventures brings more than just capital

With kicker ventures, CoTrainer is gaining not only a financial investor but also a strategic partner with extensive reach within the soccer industry. In addition to capital, kicker plans to contribute its sports data, media expertise, and marketing reach. The goal is to reach millions of soccer fans through various channels in the future.

We are particularly pleased that, as kicker ventures, we can contribute not only capital, sports data, and scaling expertise but also the reach of kicker through various initiatives. After all, through our platform, we reach millions of soccer fans every day—from the professional level down to the district league.

Tobias Offergeld, Head of Corporate Development & Strategy at kicker ventures

The investors view the founding team’s close connection to the target audience as a decisive competitive advantage. CoTrainer is developing its platform directly based on the needs of amateur clubs, thereby addressing a problem that affects nearly every soccer club.

Further Initiative for Amateur Soccer Announced

In parallel with the funding round, CoTrainer has already announced its next growth initiative. For the 2026–27 season, the company is planning a large-scale initiative to support amateur soccer in collaboration with an as-yet-unnamed equipment partner. Further details are set to be released in the coming weeks.

And if all else fails, we’ll do it like we did back in our childhood. Grab the ball, head out to the grass or hard court, and then just ask,“Wanna kick the ball around a bit?”