A software platform helping amateur sports clubs design, manage and order team apparel has raised $1 million in a pre-Seed round, with former Socceroo Tim Cahill among the investors.
Cahill is also a strategic partner in Nardo as it looks to expand in the US, UK and Middle East.
Beau Catley, cofounder of streetwear label Geedup Co, cofounded Nardo in Sydney in 2023 after a request from a local sports club made him realise how complex the supply chains were just to get a team kitted out.
So Catley redesigned how grassroots clubs source, customise and manage teamwear, turning a manual process that involves more than 130 separate touchpoints, into a single digital workflow for sports organisations.
He worked directly with grassroots and semi-professional soccer and rugby league clubs to map the full end-to-end process, from design and sampling through to production and delivery, then teamed up with cofounders Rhys Adams and Adam Famularo to scale the concept into a global technology business.
Nardo connects clubs directly into a global manufacturing network for greater customisation, faster turnaround times and improved cost efficiency.
“The issue was never just the product, it was the entire operating model,” Catley said.
“Clubs were navigating fragmented suppliers, unclear pricing and manual processes that created friction at every stage. We built Nardo to simplify the entire experience and give clubs one connected system from design through to delivery.”
A global opportunity
With the initial funding going to Nardo’s global ambitions, Cahill’s love of the Beautiful Game – the most played sport in the world, with around 250 million players – meant he saw it as key way to support grassroots football.
“For too long, local clubs have been stuck with outdated systems just to get players on the pitch. What Nardo is building gives clubs access to better tools, stronger identity and a far more professional experience,” he said.
“What impressed me is that this isn’t just an apparel business, it’s technology solving a real operational problem for clubs. The opportunity globally is massive and I believe Nardo is building something that can genuinely change how grassroots sport operates.”
The platform, Nardo Experience, enables clubs to create custom apparel ranges, build digital lookbooks and order collections, access live pricing and quoting, manage approvals and sampling workflows, and track production and delivery in real time.
Catley said the US is a major growth market due to the scale of its youth and grassroots sports ecosystem – with the World Cup kicking off there next week – and Nardo is also seeing early traction in the UK, Canada and the Middle East.
“This is about modernising the infrastructure behind grassroots sport,” Catley said.
“Professional clubs have had access to world-class systems, branding and operational support for years. Grassroots clubs deserve that same experience.”
Clubs can join the waitlist to use Nardo at nardo-exp.com
