Miton is investing in ACE. "Strava but for padel" is already used by more than half of Czech players.

The padel app ACE was born out of Jirka Diblík's personal need. A game of padel requires four players of a similar level, which means tedious coordination on WhatsApp with friends as well as strangers whose skill level is unknown. ACE simplifies the entire process, so much so that just a few months after launch, more than half of all Czech players are using the app. That amounts to roughly 9,000 users, or more than half of the estimated 15,000 Czechs who play padel regularly.

That caught the attention of Tomáš Hodboď. He and Jirka Diblík therefore agreed that Miton would become an equal partner and, to start with, invest several million crowns. Tomáš will also get fully involved in ACE and help take it abroad. Jiří Diblík will lead the technical and product side.

"Over the past few years I've seen plenty of AI projects, but none with such successful distribution. Padel is growing faster than anyone can build the infrastructure for it. I want to give ACE several years of my time to make it the number one app for padel players," says Tomáš Hodboď about the news.

Twenty-eight-year-old Jiří Diblík previously built VOS.health, which he and co-founder Ondřej Kopecký sold to the American company Spring Health. Today he leads the TBA group, which has a portfolio of consumer apps. ACE is the first project he has opened up to an outside partner.

"I created ACE as a hobby project out of my love for padel. Over time, though, it became clear that it had the potential to grow into a major platform. The more Tomáš and I talked, the more we realized how well we complement each other. I bring experience building global B2C apps to ACE, and Tomáš brings experience building and scaling successful companies. On top of that, I've already had a great experience with Miton in my previous startup," says Jiří Diblík.

ACE works as a vertical social network, similar to Strava for runners and cyclists. Players have their own rating and match history, and can easily find opponents or partners at their level. It replaces the arranging of games over WhatsApp and Facebook that the padel community has relied on until now.

The product will now also include FullClub, a booking and club management software that ACE will offer to padel clubs for free. Clubs will get a system for managing courts, organizing tournaments, handling payments and building their community, with no licensing fees.

"What's great about ACE is that it's built for padel. No off-the-shelf booking solution can offer you what this app does. For clubs, it's a way to manage the community across all player levels, which matters a lot in padel and will matter even more in the future. Once every city has several clubs and dozens of courts, the winner will be whoever has the best facilities, the best service and, above all, the best community. People will always come back to you because they love the place and especially the people who gather there," says Jan Ducháč of SK Padel Malšovice in Hradec Králové, sharing his experience with ACE.

About ACE

ACE is a community app for padel players. It connects players of a similar level, keeps track of their rating and match history, and provides clubs with a free booking and community system. It works as a vertical social network modeled on Strava.

https://www.aceplay.app/

https://thefullclub.com/

Picture for download