Pickleheads, a leading platform for pickleball players to connect and organize games, announced the closing of a $2.5 million seed round. This seed round was led by Overline, an Atlanta-based VC, with participation from Ardent, Oregon Sports Angels, Profluence Capital, Service Provider Capital, and Network Ventures.
Pickleball has been the fastest-growing sport for three consecutive years, with 36.5 million players—surpassing golf, tennis, and basketball. But with rapid growth comes challenges such as court shortages, long wait times, and overwhelmed organizers.
Pickleheads solves these issues and is now the go-to platform for players:
— 9 million players visited Pickleheads last year
— #1 mobile app for pickleball
— 354,000 registered users, growing 405% year-over-year.
— Official court and game finder of USA Pickleball and the Global Pickleball Federation
Pickleheads believes that every game should be a good game: fun, social, and competitive. Even though open play was once the gold standard, players now span a wide range of skill levels, making structured programming essential.
The company is now powering level-based formats of play that preserves the magic of open play while ensuring balanced, competitive games.
KEY QUOTES:
“Pickleball offers something we all need now more than ever — the joy of real-world connection. That’s why we believe pickleball will become the world’s largest sport.”
- Max Ade, CEO and co-founder of Pickleheads
“Many players know Pickleheads as the go-to court finder, but we’re quickly evolving into a complete platform to power rec play. Organizers can set up games, collect payments, run round robins and recruit from our network of local players.”
- Brandon Mackie, COO & co-founder of Pickleheads
“Pickleheads is revolutionizing the on-court experience for players, and we couldn’t be more excited to support their vision.”
• ⁃ Sean O’Brien, Managing Partner at Overline
