Upside startup: MacLloyd

Headquartered: Paris (France), US subsidiary in Miami, FL (USA)

Founded: 2013

Company website: www.mclloyd.com

Sector: GPS tracking system

Customers: 100+ customers in Europe (Stade Rennais/Ligue 1, Standard de liege/Belgian soccer league, Amien SC/Ligue 2, PMU..), North America (PSG Academy. Etc.)

McLloyd was born in 2013 in France. Based on the growing demand for performance optimization tools in sport and the limitations of existing equipment, McLloyd has set itself the goal of bringing a technological breakthrough in this area.

After 3 years of R & D and several million euros invested, a first World Rugby Compliant system was launched in 2016, propelling McLloyd as the leading supplier of French professional rugby (TOP14 / ProD2). Then in 2017, McLloyd won the international PMU bidding competition for 42 companies to track horses in the race. Thus was born the first centimeter GPS tracker in the world compatible with the constraints of sport due to its size and weight. This range of products for Horse Racing is now used on the biggest horse races in the world.

McLloyd customers

In 2018 McLloyd opened a subsidiary in Miami, and today addresses the European and American markets of tracking in professional sports and horse racing.

Video: McLloyd

This week, we interviewed Laurent Debrousse, the head of McLloyd in North America to discuss the company’s product, its ambition for the North American market, and future plans for 2021 and beyond.

Upside: Q1. Tell us about MacLloyd and how your product is different from other GPS systems out there?

Laurent DeBrousse: We have a system comparable to Catapult & Statsport, however the accuracy of our data and especially the LIVE system is a real game changer.

It allows the coach to track 100% of the data in real time, more than 200 indicators. No downloading is necessary and the staff can save a lot of time everyday. Also, we provide a 2D mapping for tactical analysis. The software has been built by coaches for coaches, so it remains very user friendly.

For each new client we provide online training and we stay available for any eventual question through our whatsapp chat, no hotline.

Upside: Q2. Which teams are using your GPS system in North America today?

LD: As of today most of our US clients are private speed coaches, especially for football and soccer. Zach Wilson & Trveor Lawrence have been using our technology with Lester Spellman for example. We helped House of Athletes track their players before and during the HOA NFL combine. (25 football players drafted this season) More recently we have made some partnerships with Track & Field coaches and we have three athletes using MclLoyd who are going to the JO in Tokyo, thanks to Elevate Performance.

Like in Europe we are also working with Rugby & Soccer teams like SD Legion (MLR) Miami City (USL2) and PSG Academy.

Upside: Q3. How important is the North American market for McLloyd?

LD: After three years of discovering the US market, McLloyd is adding new clients every week since the beginning of the year, North America is the priority for 2021 and 2022.

Upside: Q4. Are you focusing on a particular sport for the North American market?

LD: We would like to help teams or coaches that have never used GPS technology before to start using it and learn how to adapt training load and manage their player through our technology. For the end of 2021 we are looking to work with High School and College teams in football. For soccer the priority is to sign new teams in USL and NISA. Also, Lacrosse and Women sports are growing very fast, so those two areas will be a priority for us as well.

Upside: Q5. Can you tell us about your GPS’s mesh network and how it makes your GPS system more accurate than other GPS systems?

LD: Effectively, we are launching our new GPS HPV2 by the end of the year. It’s going to be a little revolution. We are using 5+ years of experience and research in Racing and especially in horse racing and adapt this technology to collective sports. First, we are a tech company, so accuracy is a priority for us. By using a new GPS antenna and our patented Mesh system we are going to have an extreme accuracy in our data up to 2inches. Also, by using a 3/4G sim card we will be able to do remote coaching, you are coach in LA but your athletes are in NY, not a problem you can see them running live through your software.

Upside: Q6. What are your plans for the next 24 months in North America?

LD: We want to keep growing and hope to reach 100 clients by the end of the year. To be honest we would like to do more than just providing data. Using GPS it’s a good step but knowing what to do with your data is the key in modern sport. We are trying to build a community of coaches that use our products and can exchange with other teams and staff.

We would like to be a reference in matters of accuracy and robustness of the system but at the same time we have to remain affordable to be able to work with every team looking for performance.

If you want to learn more about McLloyd please contact Laurent Debrousse at ldebrousse@mclloyd.com