Rover is BACK!
Today marks an exciting evolution in our business, one that warrants a community update as we continue to plot our path forward and carve out a dedicated team and purpose-built product for sports.
Like many software companies, our journey has been one filled with exciting opportunities and evolution as we navigated the pandemic, raised funding and expanded our team globally. As part of this journey, we rebranded the company from Rover to Judo about 2 years ago. At the time, we had a very strong base of customers in sports as well as an emerging roster of clients in other verticals such as retail. We knew the problem we were solving for app publishers in sport, was also shared by others. Being able to create native content in an app without developer time or app updates, paired with marketing automation to deliver that content to the right user at the right time, had universal applicability.
With a rebrand and fundraise under our belt in late 2021, we were excited to take this compelling value proposition to new markets and new verticals in 2022. Over the course of the year, we continued to work with our existing sports clients, adding new teams, while also having conversations with many product teams in new industries.
As we engaged new customers in other verticals, it became clear that while there were some commonalities, the nuances and needs of the sports market were unique. ‘One product to serve all’ wouldn’t work and if we continued on this product path, we would dilute value for our sports core and create a product that was good for all, but not great for anyone.
With our long standing foundation and loyal partner and customer base in sports, this wasn’t an option. Late last year we made the decision to set our sports product back on its own dedicated path with its own product team and resources.
As part of this process of creating a dedicated product for sports, the Judo product for non-sports users has been carved out as a separate offering - a design solution for iOS apps used by large product teams in other verticals. We’re super excited about its potential, but now know that the Judo product is solving a different set of problems than those of our sports clients.
The Judo product will maintain the Judo brand, and in creating a dedicated product for our sports customers, we’ve decided to bring back the ‘Rover’ brand. Rover is a name that is reflective of our origins in sport, and our belief that the uniqueness of sports and live events requires a purpose-built solution. Both the Rover and Judo brands operate under the corporate umbrella of Rover Labs Inc., and each have dedicated product teams hard at work prioritizing features, integrations and solutions specific to the needs of the sports and design communities respectively.
We’re excited to announce this shift, and more importantly, what it means for the industry and our customers in sports. Our new dedicated website for Rover will reflect this and we’ll soon be launching dedicated social channels to showcase industry insights and the great work we see every day from our 100+ customers in sport.
We’re incredibly optimistic about the future potential of sports and live events, and the role technology can play in catapulting the industry to the next level. We know the uniqueness of the industry warrants purpose-built solutions, and we look forward to contributing to the evolution of an industry we are so passionate about.
John Coombs
CEO & Co-founder