India's Football AI Startup That Won Real Madrid & Ajax | Sayak Ghosh, StepOut | Pressplay Podcast

What if the best product insight in football analytics came from playing FIFA in college? Sayak Ghosh did not set out to build a platform for Real Madrid. He set out to solve a problem he kept watching play out on local grounds in Kolkata — talent everywhere, data nowhere. What followed was StepOut: an AI-powered football intelligence platform that turns a phone-camera match video into 400+ datapoints, network analysis, vector maps, and player development plans — inside 24 hours. No GPS. No 22-camera rig. Just video in, intelligence out. StepOut has won the AFC Ajax Reimagine Football Challenge, the Real Madrid Next Accelerator for Asia 2025, and placed 2nd runner-up globally at the KPMG Global Tech Innovator Competition at Web Summit Lisbon. Clients now span 23+ countries — from Bengaluru FC and the AIFF to Football NSW, Rayo Vallecano, and Ajax. In this episode of the Pressplay Capital Podcast, Sayak walks through: The FIFA Manager Mode insight that became StepOut's design brief Democratising analytics — Champions League camera budgets vs. one phone at a youth academy The Ajax moment — how a startup from Kolkata landed one of Europe's most iconic academies India's football data gap — 300M+ fans, FIFA ranking 127, and whether technology can actually move the needle Scaling to 23 countries — the GTM playbook when your buyers range from Bengaluru FC to Football Queensland Player gamification — FIFA-style digital badges, Player Impact Scores, and what young athletes are actually doing with the data Pressplay Capital is a Delaware-registered seed-stage sports tech fund co-anchored with Decile Group. We back founders who identify a fundamental workflow problem in sport and build the infrastructure layer underneath it. Fund deck and data room: https://pressplaycapital.decilehub.co... Book a call: https://calendly.com/vinitmehta-press... Learn more about StepOut: https://www.stepout.ai #StepOut #FootballAnalytics #AIFootball #SayakGhosh #IndianFootball #SportsAI #FootballTech #SportsTech #PressplayPodcast #PressplayCapital #FootballStartup #AFCAjax #RealMadrid #YouthAcademy #PlayerDevelopment #FootballIntelligence #SeedFund #SportsInvesting #IndianStartup #FIFAanalytics #vinitmehta #sportstech