Pelly

What Pelly does

Pelly Systems Ltd, founded in 2023 and headquartered at Menai Science Park in Anglesey, Wales, operates a vertical SaaS platform purpose-built for professional football club operations. The Pelly Platform centralizes recruitment, contracts, compliance, squad management, performance data, and internal collaboration workflows that clubs typically manage across disconnected tools, spreadsheets, and informal channels. Rather than replacing existing systems, Pelly is data-agnostic and integrates with established data providers (Wyscout, Gradient Sports/PFF FC) and club tools, mapping data into unified player profiles and operational views. The product is positioned as the operating system for football departments, with claims of reducing approximately five hours per day in administrative burden and adapting to clubs' existing structures rather than imposing new processes.

The company sells via enterprise field sales using "Book a Demo" CTAs and targets Heads of Football, Sporting Directors, Academy Directors, and analytics staff at professional clubs. Revenue is generated through recurring SaaS subscriptions under multi-year agreements. Distribution combines direct sales with a strategic channel partnership motion, exemplified by a multi-year deal with the Football Association of Wales to deploy Pelly across all 16 JD Cymru Premier clubs from the 2026/27 season, plus a UEFA Innovation Partnership for the 2026 European Under-19 Championship in Wales. Named enterprise customers include Motherwell FC (three-year official Club Management Platform agreement) and SC Cambuur (formalized after a year of product collaboration); the company also cites active usage by clubs across Europe, North America, and South America, with testimonial quotes from clubs in the Brazilian Serie B, UAE Pro League, Danish Superliga, Belgian Pro League, and Bundesliga.

Pelly has raised approximately £775,000 (~$1M) in disclosed funding: a January 2025 pre-seed led by a syndicate of angel investors and part-matched by the Development Bank of Wales Angel Co-Fund, followed by a December 2025 follow-on from existing investors. The leadership team comprises three co-founders—Iwan Pritchard (CEO), Stephen Hickingbotham, and Tomos Owen—with mentorship from Ian Brookes and Barbara Want. Headcount is reported in the 11-50 range. The company was named Global Startup of the Year at the Wales StartUp Awards in June 2025.

Name

Pelly

Legal name

Pelly Systems Ltd

Website

https://pelly.app

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Pelly Systems Ltd is a Welsh-headquartered vertical SaaS company that provides a data-agnostic football operations platform, unifying recruitment, contracts, compliance, squad management, and performance data for professional football clubs and associations via subscription contracts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Menai

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. SaaS Platform Subscription: Football clubs pay for access to the Pelly platform to manage internal operations and recruitment. The platform is offered as a club management solution with multi-year agreements (e.g., three-year Motherwell FC agreement)

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Pelly is a SaaS platform that centralises football clubs' operational data, workflows, and decision-making into one system. It connects recruitment, contracts, compliance, squad management, and performance data from a club's existing tools, presenting unified views for sporting directors, coaches, and analysts. Rather than replacing a club's toolset, Pelly integrates external data providers and internal workflows into a single operating system for football operations.

Product overview

Pelly is a single football operations platform that serves as the operating system for football clubs. The core Pelly Platform unifies recruitment, contracts, compliance, squad management, and performance data into one centralized system. The platform connects with external data providers like Gradient Sports to pull in physical performance metrics (23 physical metrics across 50+ competitions). Rather than replacing clubs' existing tools, Pelly integrates them into a cohesive workflow, enabling decision-makers to access all relevant information in one place for scouting, staff management, match details, medical records, and internal collaboration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Pelly Platform

Quantifiable outcome

• Clubs lose 5 hours a day to admin; Pelly reduces this administrative burden

Named customers3 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability4 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Football Association of Wales (FAW)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 June 2026Multi-year strategic partnership to bring the Pelly platform to all 16 JD Cymru Premier clubs from the 2026/27 season. The partnership coincides with the league's expansion from 12 to 16 teams and supports the FAW's strategic vision to grow the game and raise professionalism in Welsh football.
• Motherwell FCcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 May 2026Three-year agreement naming Pelly as Motherwell's Official Club Management Platform. Implementation across the club's football operations including academy and women's team. Motherwell were the first club to reach out about Pelly.
• UEFAflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 April 2026Official Innovation Partner of the 2026 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament in Wales. Provides brand visibility across pitchside perimeter boards, in-stadium commercial displays, and inclusion on UEFA Sponsor Recognition Programme.
• SC CambuurcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 December 2025Formalized partnership after a year of collaboration during product development. Cambuur played a key role in shaping Pelly from MVP to fully operational platform. The Dutch club competes at the top end of the Eerste Divisie.
• Gradient SportsflagshipTechnology or Integration · 13 November 2025Gradient Sports' industry-leading physical performance data (23 metrics covering 50+ competitions) integrated directly into the Pelly platform. Gradient was founded as a spin-off from Pro Football Focus in 2024 and is trusted by all 32 NFL teams.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Wyscout: Wyscout is the leading football scouting and match-analysis data platform, used by most professional clubs globally. Pelly already integrates with Wyscout as a data source, positioning Wyscout as an upstream provider rather than a direct competitor in operations management.

Broad incumbents

• Hudl: Hudl is the dominant sports video and analytics platform used across football, rugby, and other sports. Comparable to Pelly as a club-facing operations and performance SaaS suite, though it is much broader and does not focus on integrating disparate football club workflows into one operations layer.
• Genius Sports: Genius Sports is a sports data and technology company providing data, content, and tech to leagues, sportsbooks, and media. Comparable in serving professional football ecosystem but with a focus on data distribution and betting rather than club operations workflows.
• Catapult Sports: Catapult is a leading athlete tracking and performance analytics provider used by elite football clubs. Overlaps with Pelly on the performance-data layer that Pelly integrates via Gradient Sports, but Catapult is hardware-anchored and broader than Pelly's operations workflow focus.
• Stats Perform (Opta): Stats Perform operates Opta, the most widely used football data feed in the industry, alongside AI-powered scouting tools. Comparable to Pelly's data-agnostic ambition but at vastly larger scale; Opta is a likely data partner and competitive alternative for performance insights.

Emerging players

• InStat: InStat is a football video and data analysis platform used by clubs, agents, and media. Comparable to Pelly on the scouting/performance layer, with similar European football buyer base, though without Pelly's broader club-operations workflow ambition.
• Second Spectrum: Second Spectrum provides AI-powered sports tracking and analytics used by football clubs and broadcasters. Comparable in targeting club analytics buyers with data-driven insight products, though primarily focused on tracking and broadcast rather than holistic club operations.
• SkillCorner: SkillCorner provides broadcast-derived football data and analytics to clubs, leagues, and media. Comparable as a newer-generation football data provider focused on accessibility for clubs outside the elite tier, a similar buyer profile to Pelly's JD Cymru Premier and Eerste Divisie customer base.
• StatsBomb: StatsBomb provides advanced football analytics and event data, increasingly used by elite clubs and federations. Comparable in targeting football analytics buyers but narrower in scope than Pelly's full operations platform.

Direct peers

• Kitman Labs: Kitman Labs provides an athlete data and operations platform for professional sports teams, centralizing performance, medical, and operational data. It is the closest direct competitor to Pelly in the club-operations SaaS category, targeting similar buyers (sporting directors, performance staff).

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/PellyPro
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pellyplatform

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Pelly