pMotion raises funding to expand movement platform

pMotion, a movement intelligence platform, is securing Series A funding to broaden its reach from elite athletes to youth and consumer markets. The funding round, led by Cobalt Capital, includes investments from David Blitzer’s Bolt, WME Group, Nimble Ventures, Venezia FC’s owners, Soul Ventures, and Canaan Ventures.

pMotion was built on the expertise of longtime sports medicine practitioner Keith Pyne, a chiropractor and current medical advisor to the Dodgers and Lakers. Pyne has treated over 2,000 professional athletes in his career, including during his time as chairman of the Nationals’ medical board.

How pMotion Works

This platform utilizes a smartphone camera to assess an athlete’s range of motion in two minutes, offering feedback to address the underlying cause of an issue, which often stems from elsewhere and leads to harmful compensations. According to Pyne, one pitcher he recently treated lost velocity and movement on his fastball because of a lower leg muscle problem, not the lower back pain he was feeling.

Keith Pyne stated that whenever you have dysfunctional range of motion along the kinetic chain, it breaks the system. Somewhere you’re breaking neurologically, and you have to change something to get the same process. So you create dysfunctional biomechanics over time.

Impact on Sports Teams

When Keith Pyne began working with the Nationals before the 2016 season, they had the second-most injuries in baseball, with 89% being non-traumatic, soft tissue ailments. However, by 2019, the Nationals had the second-fewest injuries and won a World Series. Pyne attributes this success to the team’s ability to identify and address underlying issues, allowing coaches to work with athletes who have a “blank canvas” in terms of movement.

pMotion is intended for athletes in all sports, and its patented technology was built considering neurology, physics, and anatomy. The app uses machine learning and AI to identify injury risk up to 18 months before it fully develops and sidelines the athlete.

According to pMotion CEO Jason Woo, the platform measures each node in the body, analyzing energy distribution to identify potential injury risks. Woo indicated that the startup is on the verge of finalizing major youth sports partnerships, which will lead to onboarding over 1 million young athletes over the next few years.

Jason Woo said that while they are going to market in sport — given who many of their investors are, given the pedigree of Dr. Pyne and all the championships they’ve won using this methodology — their broader goal is to be able to take their software platform and make it as accessible as anyone who wants one who has a mobile phone.