For greater than a decade, US Squash managed its personal software program service, Club Locker, to assist squash golf equipment and gamers across the nation. A tech crew developed the app, which included options starting from match group instruments to an athlete rating system.
But for Club Locker to sustain in an more and more crowded class, with different apps additionally attempting to woo gamers as sports activities akin to pickleball and padel explode in recognition, it was higher off going by itself. In November, US Squash bought a majority stake in Club Locker to Artisan Ventures. The SaaS enterprise will proceed growing squash infrastructure forward of the game’s Olympics debut in 2028, whereas additionally constructing out options for different racquet sports activities akin to desk tennis and, sure, pickleball. Financial phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed, although US Squash retains a minority stake within the enterprise, for which it is going to proceed to be the most important shopper—and longest-running benefactor.
When former US Squash chief know-how officer Ryan Rayfield first joined in 2012, its membership development was flattening, he mentioned. The sport is comparatively small; roughly 1.3 million individuals play squash every year within the U.S, in accordance to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, with a smaller slice of them signing up for memberships with the governing physique.
Rayfield’s job was to make it simpler for individuals to play the game—and extra engaging for gamers to join a US Squash membership—via know-how. At first, US Squash constructed a court docket reservation system that golf equipment might use, creating the inspiration for a service that might additionally supply stay scoring, match scheduling, match discovering and score information because it grew.
Club Locker now powers greater than 500 annual tournaments, all of school squash, and a whole lot of native leagues at practically 900 services, connecting 160,000 gamers. Former US Squash CEO Kevin Klipstein mentioned memberships greater than doubled to roughly 17,000, largely thanks to the stickiness of Club Locker’s platform. Dues doubled too. Working with builders instantly moderately than going via companies—and ultimately bringing a core crew in home—set Club Locker up to be spun out, as its creators had lengthy envisioned.
The identify Club Locker was meant to mirror the number of merchandise stuffed into the service, whereas additionally leaving the door open for the platform to develop to different sports activities. In half, that will be a necessity for golf equipment that additionally supplied tennis or racquetball.
“The vision was always, let’s do this right,” Rayfield mentioned, “and let’s have that catch on across racket sports.”
Artisan invested greater than seven figures within the system’s development. It additionally brings managerial expertise to the crew that has moved from a sport governing physique to a VC-backed enterprise, an almost unprecedented evolution. Rayfield now serves as Club Locker chief technique officer.
Club Locker will launch a cell app this month, with plans to double its engineering crew in 2026. And whereas the crew would love the time to excellent the squash product earlier than increasing its focus to different sports activities, that luxurious doesn’t exist. Competitors have entered {the marketplace}. New gamers and golf equipment are selecting up pickleball and providing padel day-after-day. “It’s a land grab, a little bit,” Artisan CEO Nick Shah mentioned. Club Locker already has a foothold in desk tennis and badminton in addition to with squash organizations exterior the U.S.
Even through the gross sales course of, which took roughly three years, Shah gained a way of US Squash’s earlier challenges of working a enterprise inside a nonprofit, together with the deliberate tempo of a governing physique and an uncommon funds construction for a startup, with cash that could possibly be attributed to Club Locker not all the time hitting its books instantly. Another complicating issue: the wealth of the board members serving to to oversee the transaction. Without a revenue motive, they targeted solely on what a deal would imply for the game.
“Frankly, most of the board members could have bought the whole thing themselves,” Shah mentioned. “It’s not about the money and the capital.”
As a part of the deal, the group can take again the product if Club Locker doesn’t hit pre-determined success metrics. “Without Club Locker, we can’t really operate our programs or federation,” Klipstein mentioned.
In some ways, Club Locker’s mission hasn’t modified. It advantages by getting extra individuals to play squash and getting squash gamers to hit the courts extra typically. If it succeeds, it might additionally lead different traders to ask whether or not there is perhaps but extra viable companies hiding inside sports activities’ governing our bodies, destined to be let out.