Seeking to capitalize on the sports “eatertainment” trend, Mexican baseball simulator maker Batbox has raised $7.3 million in venture capital to bring its casual eats and entertainment concept to the U.S.
Batbox combines food and beverage with a baseball simulation pitching and hitting cage—patrons swing in a batting cage against an actual baseball that flies out of a computer simulated pitcher’s hand, for instance. The Series A fundraising, announced by the business Tuesday, saw participation from two venture capital firms, U.S.-based food and beverage-focused Emerging Fund and Monterrey, Mexico-based private wealth manager MG Partners.
The group aims to bring the casual sports-entertainment idea to the U.S. at a Dallas-area location next year, with designs to open two dozen more across the country by the end of the decade. The company has operated a version of the restaurants in Mexico the past four years.
“To get into the United States is a no-brainer; it’s the largest baseball market in the world,” said chief operating officer Craig Winning on a phone call. “But while it does have a huge following, access is actually somewhat limited outside of kids games and church leagues. The technology allows you to come in at a base level and understand the game.”
With the fund-raise, Batbox USA is being spun off into a separate business from its developer, Mexico sports-tech and entertainment firm SIMCo. SIMCo rose to prominence as a distributor of Golfzon, the world’s largest golfing simulator with more than 60% global market share—though only a modest share of the American market, according to Winning. The company expanded to create a batting and pitching cage balled Batbox using similar technology called Strikezon from the same developer, South Korea-based Newdin.
“The challenge that we had was how do you try and sell a product that is $80,000 in price when you don’t have anywhere to really show anybody your product in terms of a showroom?” said Winning. That led SIMCo to develop Mulligan’s, a bar-restaurant-golfing concept that now has six locations in Mexico. While SIMCo has had some success selling the Batbox simulator as a standalone—one is in Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals—the company decided similarly to open Batbox bar-restaurants in Mexico. At the three locations in the country, the company has found overall sales at the casual restaurants are 60% greater than comparable Mulligan’s golf locations. “Golf is traditionally a foursome you play in, but with our Batbox concept, you can play with up to 18 people on that one simulator at one time,” said Winning.
The first U.S. location, planned for Addison, a town north of Dallas, will be about double the size of the Mexican locations, at 13,200 square feet, and will offer 10 simulators and feature a similar American-food menu heavy on wings, hot dogs, burgers and a selection of beer.
The expansion of the concept shows the rise in the trend of so-called eatertainment concepts that have been heavily backed by VC funds in recent years. Topgolf International, which combines tech enhanced driving ranges with a bar-restaurant, raised nearly $169 million in funding before being bought by Callaway Golf in 2021. More recently, restaurants based on other sports, like the basketball-themed JumpShot Live and the pickleball-focused Chicken N Pickle, have found backing. Batbox isn’t the only baseball eatery concept either, with a Houston-area baseball play-and-eat business, Home Run Dugout, opening last year.
Winning expects the expertise of its VC investors to help it capitalize on the U.S. market. Between Emerging Fund and MG Partners, the investors have investments in similar sports technologies including F1 Arcade, Puttshack and Sandbox VR.
“We see a huge potential market. We want to help grow the game along with MLB and other professional teams and feel we can be a phenomenal partner in that regard,” said Winning.