Copenhagen-based Jabbr.ai, an AI analytics innovator for combat sports, has announced a €4.3 million Seed round to accelerate their mission of becoming the ‘de facto’ OS for combat sports – bringing Silicon Valley-grade AI to an industry “still reliant on 1980s tech“.
The round led by Buckley Ventures, the fund of Josh Buckley, with participation from Seven Seven Six, the fund by Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), John Zimmer (Lyft), and Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward, alongside early backers like PSV Tech.
“Jabbr is basically a plug-and-play streaming and transparent live-scoring solution for combat sports. We let users record and live-stream all their fights and sparring, complete with highlights, stats, AI live scoring, and overlay graphics. It’s like a professional TV production, except better and at a 100x cost reduction,” said Allan Svejstrup, CEO.
Jabbr’s Seed round places it within a broader 2025 trend of European startups combining AI, computer vision, and sports technology.
Across the continent, funding rounds of similar scale have emerged – such as ReSpo.Vision’s €4.2 million to enhance football tracking and ScorePlay’s €12.5 million Series A for AI-driven media automation.
Smaller but notable raises include SponsWatch’s €1 million Seed in Sweden for AI-based sponsorship analytics, Sports Impact Technologies’ €650k pre-Seed in Ireland for impact detection wearables, and Model Health’s €800k pre-Seed in Belgium for video-based movement analysis.
Together, these rounds indicate steady investor confidence in AI-powered sports analytics and media automationacross Europe. While most focus on football, general sports performance, or content management, Jabbr distinguishes itself by targeting the combat sports segment, merging automated video production, real-time scoring, and analytics into one platform.
With backing from Silicon Valley and sports-industry investors, the company’s position reflects both technological maturity and recognition of an underserved market within sports tech.
Alexis Ohanian, Reddit Co-founder and Founder of VC firm Seven Seven Six, has seeded AI pioneers like Flock Safety and with founding control owner of Angel City FC, the most valuable women’s soccer team in the US adds: “I back Founders who break old systems. Jabbr isn’t just disrupting – it’s rebuilding the sweet science from the ground up.”
Founded in 2022, Jabbr is an AI startup building the future of combat sports. After years of R&D, Jabbr built the world’s first computer vision AI dedicated to combat sports: DeepStrike.
DeepStrike tracks every punch, block, and movement in realtime to deliver automated highlights, accurate analytics and transparent judging to the world. Since its public release Deepstrike has been trusted on the world’s largest stage, debuting its signature stats and highlights to millions on DAZN and TNT Sports.
EU-Startups previously covered Jabbr’s €685k Seed funding in 2023.
Lyft co-founder John Zimmer, who has long championed tech that increases access to opportunity, adds: “This is bigger than stats and video. It’s leveling the playing field, increasing accountability and giving fighters all over the world a fair shot.”
While other successful startups like VEO changed football by giving every club and team access to pro-grade video streaming and analytics, Jabbr targets combat sports’ €1.7 billion analytics and content creation gap. Their proprietary computer vision AI watches the fight like a coach, scores it like a judge, and produces it like a broadcast crew, automating streaming, highlights, stats, scoring, and overlays in real time.
Josh Buckley, whose early bets include Applied Intuition and AI safety pioneer Flock Safety, foresees how Jabbr: “seamlessly integrates hardware, software, and AI to create a new category experience for combat sports. Much like how Twitch unlocked a community-driven revolution in gaming, Jabbr’s platform can redefine how fighters, trainers, and fans connect and engage.”
The funding round positions Jabbr at the intersection of Silicon Valley’s tech elite and combat sports royalty, and follows a series of viral moments where Jabbr’s tech and stats surfaced after controversial bouts, racking up millions of views and fueling global debate on judging fairness.
“Jabbr is like Plaid for combat sports, their hardware and API will power everything from automated broadcasts to betting. We’re backing the category king,” says Christian Dalsgaard, who first recognised Jabbr’s potential when their very first AI-generated fight metric tech demo went viral during late 2022.
