Golf star Bryson DeChambeau leads acquisition of Seattle-area startup Sportsbox AI

First Bryson DeChambeau used Sportsbox AI to win a major. Then he invested in the Bellevue, Wash.-based startup. Now he’s taking a swing at the entire company.

DeChambeau, the two-time U.S. Open champion and one of golf’s most tech-obsessed players, is leading a group of investors that has acquired Sportsbox AI, the startup that uses AI and 3D motion capture to analyze golf swings from smartphone video.

With the announcement Tuesday morning, the company also announced SAMI, an upcoming agentic AI coaching assistant powered by Google Cloud that’s designed to translate the app’s swing data into personalized, conversational coaching advice.

As part of the partnership, DeChambeau will also carry the Google Cloud logo on his golf bag at the Masters and future tournaments — reportedly the first time the Google Cloud brand has appeared on a professional golfer’s bag.

“This is about making golf more accessible, especially premium coaching,” DeChambeau said in the acquisition announcement, saying they’re “building something that brings real coaching to anyone with a smartphone, not just elite players. That’s what gets me fired up.”

Financial details: DeChambeau, who is preparing to compete in the Masters later this week, told Bloomberg the transaction is worth eight figures, without being more specific. 

Sportsbox had raised more than $9 million, GeekWire previously reported. It was last valued at $41 million in a March 2023 seed round, according to PitchBook.

The press release announcing the acquisition describes the buyers as a group of investors led by DeChambeau but does not name the other members. 

Co-founders Jeehae Lee and Samuel Menaker will continue to run Sportsbox, a spokesperson confirmed. The company’s roughly 30 employees will stay on, and Sportsbox will remain headquartered in Bellevue, though many employees work remotely.

PitchBook lists 19 sellers who fully exited in the deal, including Elysian Park Ventures, the PGA of America, pro golfer Michelle Wie West, golf instructor David Leadbetter, Randi Zuckerberg, and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin.

Backstory: Sportsbox launched in 2020 as a spinoff of AI Thinktank, a Bellevue-based incubator founded by Mike and Rich Kennewick, the brothers behind Voicebox Technologies, an early speech recognition company.

Lee, the CEO, is a former LPGA Tour player who previously led strategy and business development at Topgolf. Menaker, the CTO, was VP of engineering at Voicebox.

The app uses a smartphone camera to create a 3D model of a golfer’s swing and measure hundreds of data points that would otherwise require an expensive motion-capture studio. 

Sportsbox generates revenue through coaching subscriptions and a consumer tier for golfers at $15.99 per month or $110 per year.

DeChambeau’s connection: In the week leading up to the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, DeChambeau used Sportsbox technology to identify and fix a slight miss to the right in his shots. He gave the company a shout-out at his winner’s press conference and soon after joined as an investor.

SAMI — short for Sportsbox AI Motion Intelligence — is the next step.

Built on Google’s Gemini models, it’s designed to act as a conversational AI coach, interpreting the app’s 3D biomechanical data and delivering personalized advice. The press release describes it as moving Sportsbox from a passive measurement tool to a proactive AI agent.

SAMI is currently in beta, and the company said it will begin rolling out agentic AI features throughout the second quarter, starting this week with AI-generated highlights available to subscribers of its 3D Player and 3D Player Plus tiers on iOS.

DeChambeau told Bloomberg he’s been using the technology ahead of the Masters and plans to keep using it during and after the tournament. But he said it isn’t meant to replace coaches. 

“The camera and the phone are only going to tell you so much,” he told Bloomberg. “They can’t make you feel what you’re doing.”