By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--Catapult Group International acquired sports-tech provider Perch for US$18 million in a deal it said will accelerate its AI capabilities and provide new growth opportunities.

Catapult has paid US$3 million up front from its existing cash reserves, it said Thursday. It will pay the remainder in four tranches of stock over the next 12 months, with Perch shareholders also eligible for up to US$10 million in stock-based earn-outs.

The acquisition of Perch, which provides real-time tracking of athlete strength training, will help integrate Catapult's on- and off-field offerings, the Boston-based company said.

"There's expertise, particularly in their computer vision and the algorithms they build in AI, that we could think about deploying in other areas," Catapult CEO Will Lopes said on an investor call. "Particularly on the field."

Catapult supplies performance-tracking devices and analytics software to more than 3,600 professional sports teams globally. Last month, the Australia-listed company reported a net loss for the 12 months through March of US$8.75 million. The average analyst forecast had been for a US$12.7 million net loss from a revenue of US$116.5 million, according to Visible Alpha data.

Catapult, which has a market capitalization of about US$1.10 billion, had US$10.8 million in cash as of March 31.

Lopes said that R&D capital expenditure would remain flat relative to revenue, with the cost of adding Perch engineers to Catapult's team offset by additional revenue.

Perch, founded in 2016 by a pair of MIT engineers, generates annualized contract value--which Catapult views as a lead indicator of revenue--of US$2.5 million.

Last month, Catapult reported ACV for fiscal 2025 of US$101.2 million, up almost 17% on a year earlier.

"There will probably be a little bit of engineering work to connect their system to ours," Lopes said. "Given the engineering power that we have, that won't necessarily change the profile of our R&D cost."

Catapult's Australia-listed shares bounced between narrow gains and losses early Thursday, having closed Wednesday at a record 6.22 Australian dollars, equivalent to US$4.04. The stock is 68% higher so far in 2025.

Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 04, 2025 20:40 ET (00:40 GMT)

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