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Manchester VR sports-training firm Rezzil raised $10M led by Jobe Bellingham, with the Premier League also backing, to expand in North America and double staff.
Key Takeaways
- Rezzil raised $10M (about £7.5M) on October 19, 2026, in a round led by Dortmund midfielder Jobe Bellingham.
- The Premier League, NBA Launchpad and Tennis Australia's AO Startups remain on the cap table. Valuation was not disclosed.
- Headcount is set to rise from about 50 to about 100 within 12 months, with new offices in London and Chicago.
Lead
Rezzil, the Manchester sports-technology company that built its name on virtual reality training for professional football, announced a $10M round on October 19, 2026. Borussia Dortmund midfielder Jobe Bellingham led the raise. Putting coach Phil Kenyon joined as a new investor, and existing backers including the Premier League and Simba Investments returned.
The money will fund a push into North America, a larger engineering and sales team, and consumer gaming and mobile products. The company did not disclose valuation or revenue.
What Does Rezzil Actually Sell?
Rezzil sells software that turns player and ball movement into data and visuals for clubs, leagues and broadcasters. It started with VR training in which players rehearse match situations in a headset. It now describes its core category as movement intelligence, which covers VR and extended reality products, 3D tools for recreating match scenarios, and a broadcast graphics toolkit.
The broadcast side has visible customers. The BBC's Match of the Day has used the tools for analysis segments. The company says hundreds of organizations use its products, including elite teams and governing bodies, though it has not published a customer breakdown.
Who Is Backing the Round and Why Does It Look Unusual?
The cap table reads like a dressing room. Thierry Henry, Gary Neville, Vincent Kompany, Michail Antonio and Tyrone Mings hold stakes, as does rugby player Anthony Watson. Tennis Australia's AO Startups and NBA Launchpad bring accelerator relationships in two other sports.
Athlete investors are a credible signal that the product works for players. They are not a substitute for institutional diligence, and no venture fund is named as a participant in this round. The Premier League took an equity stake in 2024 alongside a four-year partnership, which ties the company's fortunes to a single commercial relationship as much as to the technology.
Sion Colley, Rezzil's chief executive, said the company has spent more than a decade shaping sport through technology and that the investment lets it scale that globally with leading teams.
Why Is North America the Target?
North America is the largest sports technology market, and Rezzil has so far been rooted in English football. The company has opened an office in Chicago and hired Jake Loos, previously of Hawk-Eye and the NBA, to run North American expansion.
That hire matters more than the headline figure. Selling into the NBA, NFL, MLB and college programs means competing with established performance-data vendors and tracking providers that already hold league contracts. Rezzil's pitch is that immersive training and broadcast visuals can sit on top of the tracking data those incumbents collect. Whether leagues pay for a layer on top, rather than build it, is the open commercial question.
What Does the Round Say About Rezzil's Trajectory?
A $10M round with undisclosed valuation and revenue gives little to measure against. Data aggregators label the company a Series A business, while other coverage describes the raise as late-stage or strategic growth funding, a mismatch that suggests the company is not following a conventional venture ladder. Founded in Manchester roughly a decade ago by Adam Dickinson, Andy Etches and Gareth Thatcher, it has grown to about 50 staff, which implies a modest burn rate relative to the amount raised.
Doubling headcount to about 100 will absorb a large share of $10M within two years, particularly with a second and third office. The company will need to show recurring contracts in the US to justify a larger round later.
What Comes Next?
The first test is the US sales cycle. Pro leagues buy slowly, often through pilots with a single team, and Rezzil will likely need two or three named American clients within a year to validate the Chicago bet. The consumer gaming push is a second, lower-probability line, since VR sports games have a mixed record on adoption and retention.
A secondary scenario is a strategic exit. Broadcast graphics and performance-data companies have bought smaller sports technology firms before, and a league-backed startup with a growing roster of athlete shareholders is a plausible target.
Outlook
Rezzil has $10M, a Bellingham-led investor group, a league as a shareholder and a plan to double in size by late 2027. Valuation, revenue and the identity of any institutional co-investors remain unknown. The next 12 months in North America will show whether movement intelligence is a product category or a feature that bigger vendors will absorb.
