Orreco acquires Jennis

Orreco, the Galway-based AI-driven performance science company, has acquired Jennis, a women’s health and performance platform co-founded by Olympic champion Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill. Though financial terms remain undisclosed, the alignment highlights Orreco’s continued focus on enhancing its capabilities in women's athletic performance, integrating Jennis's proprietary technology into its expanding ecosystem.

Founded by Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Jane Cowmeadow, Jennis focuses on understanding the impact of hormonal cycles on female athletic performance. This acquisition, complemented by Orreco’s previous integration of Data Driven Sports Analytics (DDSA), seeks to amalgamate the capabilities of Orreco AI, FitrWoman, Jennis, and DDSA’s computer vision into a single, comprehensive platform. This unified framework intends to provide holistic performance insights by leveraging biological, biomechanical, and high-performance data tailored specifically for women athletes.

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill expressed enthusiasm about Jennis's integration into Orreco, citing the potential to expand conversations with sportswomen and teams by addressing areas historically neglected in female sports performance. Dr. Brian Moore, Orreco’s CEO, emphasized the unique aspect of their AI platform which assimilates women-specific data gathered over a decade, aiding smarter athletic decisions and optimized outcomes.

In recent weeks, Orreco secured a $4 million funding round, notably backed by Enterprise Ireland and investor Mark Cuban. This capital will support Orreco’s strategic growth, including the addition of 55 new jobs internationally. Orreco's FitrWoman platform is already in use by elite athletes, including more than 25 Olympic medallists, and teams like the US Women’s National Soccer Team and USA Swimming.

The strategic consolidation of Jennis aims to position Orreco at the forefront of women's sports performance technology, potentially reshaping the landscape by providing a nuanced understanding of female athlete dynamics. The broader competitive impact on the health and performance technology sector depends on Orreco’s ability to leverage its new capabilities and drive market adoption among women's sports teams globally.