The Lazaroo-Hood Group backed SPORTA with £2.5m/MYR 14.5m founding investment

The private family office of the Lazaroo-Hood Group is proud to be the founding lead investor in Sporta, with an investment of £2.5m/MYR 14.5m being injected into the business in its initial seed funding round, earlier this year.

Ross Lazaroo-Hood, Co-Founder & CEO of the Lazaroo-Hood Group, said:

“Sporta aligns perfectly with the values of my family office. It reflects the ethos I’ve carried through every company I’ve founded — long-term vision, community impact, and a belief in the power of sport to transform lives. It also resonates deeply with the mission of my family charity, dedicated to grassroots sport and disadvantaged communities.

Leading the charge as the founding lead investor is a privilege and to be part of the founding team both in assisting in a clear vision with a strong strategy and committing my own private funds.

I am honoured to stand alongside the founders as part of a movement that has the potential to reshape not just digital banking, but the way 43 million people who engage in sport every month can connect their everyday finances back to the clubs and communities they care about. This is about creating something with heart — a new era of financial services that generates much-needed new revenue streams for sport, from grassroots to elite.”

Andrew Smith, Co-Founder of Sporta, added:

“Sporta is much more than a banking proposition, much more than a financial infrastructure even. It is very much a movement. Yes, it’s the products, the services, the customer experience and outcomes - but above all it’s a movement to protect children’s safe spaces to play and develop, and a movement to protect our own physical health and mental wellbeing. It’s something we can all get behind across the country.

To realise and make this happen, Sporta needs investors who buy into the mission, the vision, and the wider movement. We couldn’t have asked for a better founding investor. Ross and the team buy into Sporta into our mission and vision, and they are committed to working with us to ensure it is delivered properly and to the highest standard — because this mission is far too important to reduce to short-term revenues or gains.”

Founded by Andrew Smith, Paul Fraser and Victoria Gosling OBE, Sporta is on a mission to become the bank that powers UK sport, leisure and wellbeing. Sporta is not yet a regulated retail bank, but aspires to be. But this is not banking as usual. Sporta is AI-native from the ground up, building the next generation of financial services — hyper-personalised, adaptive, and tailored precisely to what customers need.

Its vision is simple but bold: to take the everyday financial tools people already use — banking, savings, loans, insurance — and reimagine them through intelligent technology that learns, adapts, and connects. Every interaction becomes smarter, every product more relevant, every experience more human.

And uniquely, Sporta links those choices back to the sporting organisations people love. With 43 million people engaging in sport each month, Sporta transforms everyday financial activity into a new revenue stream for clubs, gyms, and communities — fuelling the grassroots while empowering individuals and families.

This is not an incremental improvement. It’s a step change — a leap forward in financial services that fuses purpose with technology, creating a movement that connects finance, sport, and community like never before.

Ross Lazaroo-Hood concluded:

“This is just the beginning of the journey. I am proud to back Sporta’s founders as they commit to building something transformative - a fresh approach that challenges the status quo and puts people, passion and purpose at the centre to solve their needs."