Vertical AI SaaS Marquee Secures $1.2M Pre-Seed
Marquee, a vertical AI SaaS platform for sports decision intelligence, has secured $1.2 million in pre-seed funding. The investment indicates that early-stage capital remains available for startups with a deep focus on specific industry workflows, even in a cautious market.
- The funding round was led by AnD Ventures and includes notable angel investors such as Wix co-founders Avishai Abrahami and Omer Shai, and 365Scores founder Ami Serkis. - Marquee was founded in 2025 by CEO Dean Bracha, CPO Dror Rosenfeld, CDO Tal Darchi, and CTO Jonathan Hazut. - The company aims to tackle the estimated $60 billion spent annually by professional sports clubs on player transfers and contracts, where industry estimates suggest more than half of all player transfers fail to meet expectations. - Marquee's platform is designed to automate up to 70% of existing recruitment and analytics workflows by unifying data from various sources to provide contextual and explainable recommendations. - The company is already collaborating with 20 professional clubs across Israel, Europe, and the United States, with testimonials from leaders associated with FC Barcelona, Ajax, and Hapoel Tel Aviv. - Marquee positions its product as a "Cursor for recruitment teams," drawing a parallel to the popular AI-powered tool for software developers, to emphasize its role in augmenting the work of scouts and analysts. - The investment comes as the AI in sports market is projected to grow significantly, with one report estimating it will reach $33.32 billion by 2031, up from $7.63 billion in 2025. - This funding highlights a broader venture capital trend of increasing interest in vertical AI, where startups apply AI to specific industry challenges, a shift from the previously favored horizontal AI platforms.
