Arkero, a Seattle-area startup leveraging AI to help professional sports teams streamline business operations, has expanded its reach in English soccer by landing Bolton Wanderers FC as its latest client.
The agreement builds on momentum for Arkero, which was launched last fall by the co-founder of Seattle digital remittance company Remitly and raised $6 million at the start of this year.
Bolton Wanderers — which earned promotion back to the English Championship in May — joins a client roster that includes Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders FC, NWSL’s Seattle Reign FC, MLS expansion team San Diego FC, and fifth-tier English side Southend United.
The project with Bolton centers on a three-month effort to overhaul the team’s data infrastructure and build a custom “club intelligence layer.” Designed to connect directly to Bolton’s internal data, systems, and workflows, the platform centralizes organizational knowledge so staff across business and football operations can query information and deploy practical AI tools and agents.
“AI transformation does not begin with a chatbot. It begins with a club’s data, systems, knowledge and workflows,” said Shivaas Gulati, founder and CEO of Arkero, in a news release on Friday. “The future football workplace will bring experienced people and AI systems together. Bolton has approached this work with real ambition.”
Gulati’s drive to apply AI to sports comes directly from his own ties to the game. He serves on the ownership group of Southend United and previously acted as a technical advisor to Sounders FC on its tech and AI strategy.
“We get to see the real problems inside sports teams given our access to Southend United,” Gulati told GeekWire. “Clubs have been doing things the same way for a long time, and with AI they can truly re-imagine how their workforce operates and adapts to the demands of a modern enterprise.”
A longtime angel investor, Gulati co-founded Remitly in 2011 and left in 2022. He launched Arkero with help from Vamsi Narla, who leads product and engineering, and Daniel Shi, who oversees business operations. The startup has eight full-time employees.
Based in Greater Manchester, Bolton Wanderers boasts a rich legacy as one of the 12 founding members of the English Football League in 1888. Originally formed in 1874 as Christ Church F.C., the historic club has won four FA Cups and spent over 70 seasons in English football’s top flight.
Bolton CEO David Ray said the club is making a long-term investment to ensure it isn’t “playing catch-up” as technology reshapes the sports industry. The club aims to use Arkero’s platform to drive revenue, streamline administrative tasks, and better engage fans — joining teams like the Sounders and Reign, which project over 50% efficiency savings in matchday planning using the startup’s tools.
Arkero says interest in its deep AI integration model is accelerating across the sports world. The startup is currently in discussions with multiple English Football League clubs as well as professional sports teams and leagues across Europe and North America, as leadership teams seek to move beyond generic AI tools and connect AI directly to their proprietary data and daily workflows.
“There is a window right now for forward-thinking clubs to build a meaningful advantage,” Gulati said. “In a few years, working alongside AI will simply be how professional sports organizations operate.”
