Pickleheads raises $2.5m to create the best on-court experience ever in pickleball

Big news! I'm excited to share we just raised a $2.5 million seed round for Pickleheads. We're already the number one platform for pickleball—where players come to find courts, organize games, and connect with nearby players.

With this funding, we can progress even faster toward our mission of providing the best on-court experience to players like you through technology. That means every game you join or organize on Pickleheads will be a good one. It'll be fun, social, and competitive with players at your level.

Read on to learn how we plan to enhance your player experience and revolutionize the whole pickleball industry.

We raised a $2.5M seed led by Overline, an Atlanta-based VC and early backer of Pickleheads. We've worked with Sean and Michael at Overline for over two years now and couldn't have had better partners on this journey.

We brought in strategic sports and tech investors like Ardent, Oregon Sports Angels, Profluence Capital, Service Provider Capital, and Network Ventures. I'm particularly proud to say we added over 65 angel investors, many of whom are players themselves and advocates of Pickleheads.

In just over 2.5 years, Pickleheads has grown into the largest pickleball platform on the planet. Here are a few milestones we hit last year:

At Pickleheads, our mission is to provide the best on-court experience for you, the player, through technology. We believe that every game should be a good game: fun, social, competitive, and—most importantly—with people at your level.

When pickleball first exploded during the pandemic, most players were roughly at the same level. Open play was the best on-court experience. You could show up, mix and match partners, and always get a fun game. It was magic!

Fast forward to today and players are at wildly different skill levels. Ever had to wait 20 minutes at an open play, only to get paired with someone far below your skill level? The open play format just isn't working for many players, myself included.

So, what's the solution and how do we evolve without losing the inclusive magic of open play? Our answer: level-based formats.

Imagine a social round-robin that's level-based but you're still rotating partners. This takes the spirit of open play and adds structure to make sure everyone has a good time.

Programming today doesn't come close to giving players the best experience they could have. So, we're here to deliver it through our platform no matter where you are. Whether you're at your local park, YMCA, country club, or at a private facility, you're guaranteed a good game with Pickleheads.

Many players know us as a court finder, and that's great. We hear from players every day who are discovering new courts in their local area or while traveling.

We're much more than a court finder, though. Over the last 2.5 years, we've evolved into a one-stop platform that can power rec play.

We want to be the place you go to find and organize competitive games. You can already do some really cool things with Pickleheads, including:

You can even run an entire pickleball business on Pickleheads. We're only just getting started with the potential here.

Later this year, you'll see even more innovative round-robin formats, advanced invite features, and unique solutions for leagues and tournaments. We can't wait to show you what we've been working on. Stay tuned!

We have the lofty goal of helping 1,000 players this year become pickleball entrepreneurs through programming. There is so much demand for programming and we think our sport needs a whole lot more of it.

We know firsthand that by giving players the best on-court experience (through rotate-partner round robins, DUPR integration, seamless booking, etc.), they're guaranteed to have a great time. Not only that, but they'll pay to come back again and again.

All these features are 100% free to use on Pickleheads and we'll show you how to use them in your group. If you run your first event on Pickleheads, we'll even market it for free.