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December 17, 2021

Pickleball and padel have helped this startup raise €56m

Madrid-based court booking platform Playtomic is riding high off a pandemic-fuelled love of racquet sports like padel and pickleball


Tim Smith

7 min read

It’s a bit like tennis, a bit like squash, played on a small court with oversized plastic ping pong bats. Invented in a Mexican beach resort in the late 60s, padel is now thought to be the world’s fastest growing sport, and it’s a big reason behind the success of Madrid-based Playtomic, a racquet sports booking platform that’s active in 34 countries.

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Playtomic founders Pablo Carro (L), Pedro Claveria (R) and co-chief executive Felix Ruiz (centre)
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Pickleball
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A padel player
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Playtomic’s current player interface
Playtomic’s player interface
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Playtomic’s matching system
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Tim Smith

Tim Smith was news editor at Sifted. He covered deeptech and AI, and produced Startup Europe — The Sifted Podcast . Follow him on X and LinkedIn

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