Editor's note: This story has been revised from the print edition.
Executives with the San Francisco 49ers have invested in data management startup Vertical Mass.
The executives, whose names the team and company would not disclose, invested several months ago, at the same time the club started using the technology.
“The investment in Vertical Mass was made on behalf of some of the executives and owners of the 49ers through a separate investment fund, DYAP LLC,” said Marc Shedletsky, CEO of Vertical Mass.
“The 49ers have had CRM [Customer Relationship Management] for many years,” he said. “But what all teams had identified and are in need of … is the notion of data management platforms (DPM).
“This gives sports teams the unique ability to see data in one place,” he said.
DPM collects data from multiples vendors — say, ticketing and merchandise — Shedletsky explained, contrasting that with CRM. For many clients, Vertical Mass technology amasses data from six to seven vendors.
Vertical Mass, he added, then can take that data and cross reference it, and, for example, take a set of 49ers fans and decide how many of them are interested in buying a new car.
Vertical Mass launched a little less than four years ago and has a big presence in music but is only now branching into sports. Since signing the 49ers, the team now works with 75 athletes and eight teams
Shedletsky declined to say how much the 49ers executives invested, but said it was part of a $5 million capital raise over the summer.
