TOTEEMI, a gamification startup founded by Antonio Duarte, Pamela Zuloaga, Fernando Pascua, and Alfredo Laguía, has successfully closed a €2.5M Seed round and has reached 50,000 users within its first year of operation.
The platform, which gamifies amateur cycling and athletics, allowing users to compete for dominance of territories using their sporting activities, also plans to open a Series A round to finance the company’s next steps.
This includes adding new functionalities and game modes, including new sports, and launching the application internationally.
Antonio Duarte, Co-Founder & Chairman of TOTEEMI, says: “we are creating a new era of e-real-sports where we are finding and designing countless growth opportunities in every sports vertical.”
According to him the amateur sports sector, and more specifically, the fitness apps sector, is estimated to be valued at more than $30 billion and they will have more than 500 million users by 2026.
“TOTEEMI aims to tap into this new industry by linking concepts from the gaming and e-sports sector with real physical sports, making the practice of sports reach a new dimension of experience and progress”, adds Duarte.
TOTEEMI’s investors include Grupo Empresarial Asentis (Antonio Duarte), the Strategic and Digital Design company Gurubashi (Pamela Zuloaga and Alfredo Laguía), and the Brazilian SW company Oowlish (Fernando Pascua), all of whom are co-founders.
Sports figures such as Real Madrid’s soccer player Daniel Carvajal, professional cyclist and Olympic medalist Carlos Coloma, Mariano Gon, and the communication and events agency Lastlap have also supported the project.
Irresistible competition
The TOTEEMI app incentivizes users to engage in physical activities by allowing them to conquer territories and participate in multiplayer games with other users.
The more activities users engage in, the more they can evolve their Totem and earn prizes and sponsorships.
TOTEEMI has already attracted leading brands in their sectors (e.g. Decathlon, Tuvalum, Hoka, among others) that want to get closer to users and support them with micro-sponsorships, creation of sponsored battles with special prizes, and all kinds of tailor-made experiences in real or virtual events.