Youth Sports Concussion Care Startup Cognify Health Raises Seed Round Led by Game Changers Ventures – YSBR

Youth Sports Concussion Care Startup Cognify Health Raises Seed Round Led by Game Changers Ventures - YSBR


Key Takeaways

  • Cognify Health closed a multi-million dollar seed round led by Game Changers Ventures, per Sports Business Journal, with proceeds funding hiring and product work.
  • The Los Angeles company employs its own physicians rather than brokering appointments, operating as a licensed medical practice.
  • Families can book a virtual concussion visit within 24 hours of reaching out, according to the company.
  • Game Changers Ventures has now backed at least five sports startups in roughly six months, spanning motorsport, data, operations and fan engagement.

Inside the Cognify Health Seed Round

Cognify Health, a Los Angeles healthcare startup focused on concussion care access in youth sports, has raised a multi-million dollar seed round led by Game Changers Ventures, Sports Business Journal reported on July 13, 2026. The round also drew Westbound Equity, sports private equity executive Advaith Anand, former assistant attorney general Viet Dinh, and Jack Davis of Tamarisk Lane, among other participants.

The company did not disclose a specific valuation or dollar total. Per the report, the capital will fund two priorities: growing a headcount that currently sits at roughly 10 people, including an outside product engineering team, and improving the product itself.

Cognify was founded by Christian Juzang, a Harvard graduate with prior venture firm experience. Juzang told Sports Business Journal he encountered the problem directly after his sister sustained a head injury playing volleyball and the family struggled to secure fast concussion care. He noted that timely treatment matters for long-term recovery and for limiting the mental health effects that can follow a head injury.

What Does Cognify Health Actually Do?

Cognify sits in an unusual position for a sports tech company: it is both a software platform and a medical provider. A family in need of an appointment can go to the site and book a virtual doctor visit within 24 hours.

That structure was a deliberate choice, and it is the clearest differentiator in the company’s story. Rather than routing families to third-party clinicians and taking a cut, Cognify brought physicians in house.

“The biggest thing for us is we didn’t want to be a scheduling integration,” Juzang told Sports Business Journal. “We wanted to own the process. We felt like the biggest flywheel capacity for us is going to be owning it. And so we actually brought the doctors on. We operate as a medical practice today.”

Juzang described a longer-term goal of Cognify functioning as an integrated healthcare layer for youth sports programs, extending the service to large pools of athletes at once rather than one family at a time. That would move the company from direct-to-consumer bookings toward organizational contracts, though the report does not name any program partners to date.

Game Changers Ventures Keeps Buying Into Sports Tech

Game Changers Ventures is the newest investment vehicle from Roger Ehrenberg, managing partner of Eberg Capital. Its stated focus is early-stage companies across sports tech, media and gaming.

The Cognify deal continues an active stretch. Over roughly the last six months, per Sports Business Journal, GCV has also backed auto racing platform Track Titan, data platform Equipe, operations platform Arkero, and fan engagement platform Swsh. Cognify is the healthcare entry in that group, and the only one whose product touches athlete safety directly.

For operators, the relevant read is not the check size. It is that a generalist sports tech fund is now underwriting youth athlete health as an investable category rather than a compliance obligation.

From a Volleyball Injury to a Licensed Medical Practice

Cognify’s pitch rests on a number most youth sports operators already understand instinctively: 24 hours. That is the window the company promises between a parent’s request and a doctor on the screen, and it is the gap that sent Juzang into the business after his sister’s injury.

Whether the model scales depends on what comes next, specifically whether leagues and clubs sign on as institutional customers rather than leaving families to find Cognify on their own. For now, the company is a 10-person team that has decided the only way to fix concussion access is to employ the doctors itself.


Source: Sports Business Journal, Ethan Joyce, July 13, 2026, https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2026/07/13/cognify-health-announces-seed-round-led-by-game-changers-ventures/

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About Youth Sports Business Report

What is YSBR? Youth Sports Business Report (YSBR) is the largest and most trusted source for youth sports industry news, insights, and analysis in the United States. Founded by Cameron Korab, YSBR is the premier B2B publication dedicated to the $54 billion youth sports market. With over 50,000 followers and millions of monthly views and impressions, YSBR publishes daily across its blog, weekly newsletter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, and Substack.

What does YSBR cover? YSBR delivers original reporting, market intelligence, and business analysis across youth sports facilities, sponsorship and brand partnerships, private equity and venture capital investments, NIL policy and compliance, coaching development, sports technology platforms, equipment and apparel innovation, tournaments and events, community sports initiatives, and parent resources. YSBR is read by industry executives, facility operators and developers, institutional investors, league administrators, sports technology founders, and youth sports parents who rely on accurate, sourced reporting to make informed business decisions.

Who reads YSBR? YSBR is read by youth sports industry executives, institutional investors, facility operators and developers, brand and sponsorship professionals, league administrators, youth sports parents, and sports business professionals shaping the future of youth athletics.

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