AI Innovation Headlines Latest Australian Open StartUps Cohort for 2026

Tennis Australia has released the induction of nine new companies into its Australian Open StartUps program, marking a strategic pivot toward AI-enabled innovation.

The announcement adds a diverse mix of international and domestic startups to the incubator, which has now piloted more than 40 businesses since its inception four years ago.

By leveraging the scale of a Grand Slam, these startups gain access to industry expertise and a live audience of over one million fans to validate their business models.

Commenting on the startups advantage during the Australian Open, Tennis Australia director of innovation, Dr Machar Reid, said: “Across sport and major events, AI is no longer a future concept — it’s a present-day competitive advantage.”

“A large share of this cohort are using AI to solve real operational challenges… generating insights that weren’t possible even two years ago,” Reid said.

Noting that the program is about more than just technology ,Tennis Australia CEO, Craig Tiley, added: “By leveraging the strengths of Tennis Australia, we can help drive market credibility for these businesses… and then creating alignment through investment also boosts our returns.”

“By leveraging the strengths of Tennis Australia, we can help drive market credibility for these businesses… and then creating alignment through investment also boosts our returns,” Tiley noted.

The 2026 Australian Open StartUps Cohort

The new intake features a mix of high-performance tools, fan engagement platforms, and sustainability solutions:

Performance & AI Coaching: VueMotion (Australia) delivers clinical-grade motion analysis via smartphones, while Outcoach (Australia) automates coaching management. Spain’s truefuels focuses on laboratory-proven athlete nutrition.

Operational Intelligence: Bronco (Ireland) offers an AI-powered operating system to unify sports business data, and CRED (US) provides predictive intelligence to identify high-value commercial opportunities.

Sustainability & Engagement: Bettercup (Australia) provides reusable product systems to eliminate single-use plastics. Aircast (Australia) delivers ultra-low-latency streaming, and RootNote (US) offers comprehensive data analytics for content creators.

Sport Growth: The National Pickleball League (Australia) joins to scale the country’s premier professional organisation for the fast-growing sport.

Investment Pipeline

Australian Open StartUps serves as a due diligence “testbed” for Australian Open Ventures, Tennis Australia’s  AUD61 million venture capital arm.

Australian Open Ventures has already backed four pioneering businesses in its first nine months, including AI-officiating leader Bolt6 and Mindspring Padel.

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