Golf has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years thanks to the pandemic and the popularity of Netflix’s Full Swing documental series. According to data published in the United States alone, over 531 million rounds of golf will probably be played in 2023 alone National Golf Foundation. Due to the increase in interest, golfers are finding that getting tee time on a public golf course is becoming more and tougher.
Loop Golf wants to make this process easier by working as a digital matchmaker. Finds and reserves golfing slots every time they’re available – even if they’re open in the middle of the night.
Users tell Loop Golf what their tee time criteria are, similar to when they need to play, how much they need to pay and how far they might be willing to drive to the course, among other things. Loop Golf will then search the Internet and reserve a game date that meets those criteria as soon because it becomes available. The company makes money by charging a 10% commission on each booking.
Loop Golf founder and CEO Matt Holder told TechCrunch he’s well aware of the problem. Most golf courses only allow golfers to book seven days in advance, which implies there is all the time a lot of competition for tee times. He told TechCrunch that he decided to launch Loop Golf because he couldn’t stand the frustrating process anymore and knew he probably wasn’t the only one.
“I stayed up late, searching several websites and trying to find a place to play,” Holder told TechCrunch. “I spent hours going through various options and trying to solve all the multi-factorial issues involved in finding a place for me and my group to play. I finally had enough of it, my wife was definitely fed up with it. There’s a higher way to do it.”
Holder drew on his product management experience at multiple marketplace startups, including Houzz, CarGurus and Autolist — acquired by CarGurus — to build Loop Golf. While Loop Golf is similar to a marketplace, it is barely different because it is more of a concierge service, Holder said. Users don’t scroll through options and select a course, but the platform uses a “secret sauce” layer of software to robotically track, search and book play times for its users.
“They can spend 30 seconds figuring out their preferences and save hours of searching,” Holder said. “We find and reserve time for them to play golf and give them more opportunities to play golf.”
The startup currently has over 3,000 public courses on the platform. This figure covers greater than half of Golf Digest Top 100 public courses. The startup recently raised a $1 million seed round led by Jason Calacanis’ LAUNCH fund, in addition to XST Capital Group, Friends and Family Capital, SparkOffer and The Rideshare Guy. Holder said Loop Golf contacted Harry Campbell, the rideshare guy, after noticing he was the one who opted early to book on the platform.
Holder said the company could have raised more in this round, but opted out because it didn’t want to raise more cash than it needed and also didn’t want to quit an extra percentage of its company to do so. He added that tools for AI developers also allowed them to avoid the need to hire a huge team, in addition to save time and capital.
“I think it all comes down to the dynamics of the capital needed to grow,” Holder said. “We don’t have such a capital-intensive business that can be scaled. I think our margins are really high. Do we really want to raise over $10 million? Yes, that would be great. But at the same time, we have to balance dilution with our ability to deploy capital.”
Although most golf courses are unaware that they are on the Loop Golf platform, the startup has partnered with them. Holder hopes to encourage their cooperation, mentioning that as many as 20% of bookings are canceled and Loop Golf helps fill those gaps in course bookings.
Holder said as Loop Golf grows, it can grow to be an even greater resource for golf courses as well. As its user base grows, the startup will have a database of golf course information, similar to how much people can be willing to pay for tee time at their course, which times are hottest on which days, and more.
Loop Golf is not the only startup looking to solve the problem of finding tee time. Noteefy is one other app that similarly helps golfers find tee time, but from a different angle because it really works with the golf courses themselves and provides other services similar to revenue tracking. There are also other golf startups raising money. GolfEternally, a startup that creates an at-home golf training system, has raised $10 million in enterprise capital funding. Swag Golf, a golf accessories company, also raised $10 million.
Loop Golf launched in beta last December and is now fully open for business. Holder said the company already has users booking two to three times a month and gross merchandise value is growing 100% month over month.
“We are already on track to generate multi-million dollar demand for tee times over the next 12 months,” Holder said. “This is with limited activity. So we’re really excited to see how much this will grow once we take all the training wheels off and see where it all leads.”