LivXP has been selected from a global field of innovators advancing the future of sports through AI.

LISBON, Portugal, Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced LivXP as the winner of the IBM Sports Tech Startup Prize Challenge at Web Summit Lisbon, recognizing the company for its innovative use of agentic AI to transform how fans engage with their favorite teams, organizations, and leagues.

The challenge marks the culmination of the IBM Sports Tech Startup Challenge, a year-long global initiative created to identify and evaluate growth-stage startups building enterprise-ready technologies for sports organizations, teams, media companies, and fans. Launched at Web Summit Lisbon 2025, IBM has engaged founders through showcases at Web Summits in Vancouver, Rio de Janeiro, and Lisbon, alongside a16z Tech Weeks in New York and San Francisco, and in virtual forums. These showcase activities were designed to provide visibility and engagement opportunities and did not confer eligibility, ranking, priority, or advancement in the invitation-only Prize Challenge held this week. The invite-only challenge featured seven finalists selected from a broad field of sports technology innovators. Finalists pitched their solutions before a distinguished judging panel that included Sarah Meron, Chief Communications and Brand Officer, IBM; Marc Gené, Ferrari Ambassador, Scuderia Ferrari HP; Brad Smith, Headlines Anchor at CNN; and Frederico Gil, founder and CEO of FREDGIL Academy. 

LivXP, a Swiss-American company accelerated at the Harvard Innovation Labs, is an AI-powered impulse commerce infrastructure for sports: auctions, experiences, and sponsor activations that land at the fan’s emotional high. From the Tour de Suisse to Boston College Athletics, federations, clubs, international events, and U.S. college sports programs use its white-label platform to reach fans in 150 countries.

“We were incredibly impressed by both the technical innovation and practical application of LivXp’s solution,” said IBM Chief Communications and Brand officer Sarah Meron. “At IBM, we’re always looking for new ways AI can help our clients create more engaging, personalized experiences, and we see exciting potential for technologies like this to enhance the work we do alongside our global sports and entertainment partners.”

Upon being announced the winner, LivXP CEO and Co-Founder Ashima Saxena stated, “Every emotional moment in sport revenue is waiting to happen, and AI finally lets sports organizations capture it at scale, without adding staff. We’re proud to have won the IBM Sports Tech Startup Challenge, and we look forward to working with IBM’s Sports & Entertainment Partnerships Team to bring impulse commerce to more clubs, sponsors, and fans worldwide.”

The Lisbon finale capped a year-long series of startup showcases and judging sessions bringing together influential voices from sports, media, and venture capital, including Maria Sharapova, and representatives from a16z, USTA Ventures, Sony Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), FIFA, and Powerhouse Capital.

Finalists

The seven startups participating in the 2026 IBM Sports Tech Startup Prize Challenge were:

Fanory – Fan intelligence platform transforming live sports experiences into memories, assets, and behavioral data.Neuron Systems – Multi agent AI platform for live sports and entertainment that generates real-time commentary, insights, and content for sports fans and creators.LivXP – Fan engagement marketplace that connects sports fans with exclusive experiences, auctions, and interactions with teams, athletes, and sports organizations.PressBox – AI-powered content platform that enables sports leagues, teams, and media organizations to create and personalize content and marketing.NTangible – Verbal cognitive assessment platform that measures how athletes perform under pressure.Proximity Works Inc. – AI engineering company that builds real-time intelligence and fan engagement systems for sports, media, and entertainment organizations.Noiz – Sports-matching platform making it easier to find courts, try new sports, and build player connections.

The Prize Challenge Grand Prize includes up to $100,000 to support an eligible proof-of-concept project with IBM’s Sports and Entertainment Partnership Team, subject to separate review and agreement requirements, up to $20,000 in IBM credits to be applied toward services and technology, mentorship opportunities, and evaluation opportunities described in the Official Rules.

About the IBM Sports Tech Startup Challenge

Launched in partnership with Web Summit, the IBM Sports Tech Startup Challenge is a global initiative designed to spotlight startups applying AI and other emerging technologies to solve challenges across the sports industry. Building on IBM Ventures’ mission to connect cutting-edge innovation with enterprise clients, the Challenge extends this approach to IBM’s sports portfolio, using our sports partnerships as a proving ground to showcase technologies with real-world potential for both the sports landscape and broader business applications. The 2026 program included startup showcases at Web Summit Vancouver, Rio, and Lisbon, events during a16z Tech Weeks in New York and San Francisco, and in virtual forms, culminating with the invite-only Prize Challenge at Web Summit Lisbon. These showcase activities provided opportunities for visibility and engagement but did not confer eligibility, ranking, priority, or advancement in the Prize Challenge.

About IBM in Sports

For more than 30 years, IBM has partnered with some of the world’s most iconic sports organizations, including Wimbledon, the US Open, the Masters Tournament, Scuderia Ferrari HP, and UFC. Together, IBM and its partners create AI-powered experiences designed to deliver deeper insights, smarter engagement, and richer digital experiences for sports fans around the globe.

About IBM Ventures

As the corporate venture capital arm of IBM, IBM Ventures invests in startups across enterprise AI and quantum software. A strategic investor, IBM Ventures works closely with startups and founders to bring innovative technologies into IBM and help drive value for IBM clients. Through IBM’s technology, expertise and global client network, IBM Ventures helps portfolio companies build strategic relationships and accelerate their growth.

Media Contact:

Rebeccah Propp

IBM

Rebeccah.Propp@ibm.com

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ISKENDERUN, Türkiye, Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from China Daily:

How is a power plant’s environmental performance measured? At Iskenderun Bay in Türkiye, the answer from SPIC’s Hunutlu Power Plant is not a slogan but a design drawing, a construction halt during nesting season and a set of continuously monitored nest data.

On the beaches of Iskenderun Bay, from late spring to autumn each year, protected green sea turtles return to nest. Oğuz Türkozan, a local sea turtle protection expert, has monitored the core area for years. His assessment: the turtle population in the area remains stable, “which is inseparable from the local power plant’s conservation efforts.”

In recent years, Türkozan has recorded about 50 nests along more than a kilometer of coastline, nearly 10 more than before the plant was commissioned. In recent monitoring, the beach near the plant has recorded a high of more than 60 nests, indicating the nesting ground is in good ecological condition.

Shanghai Electric Power made maintaining the ecology of the nearby sea turtle reserve a precondition at the project planning and design stage. Zhang Qingbin, director of the Hunutlu Power Plant, said that at the beginning of construction design, under the guidance of local sea turtle experts, the nearby transport trestle and access roads were optimized into a long-span truss bridge, so that the turtle nesting area would not be affected.

Turtle protection was also incorporated into the plant’s entire construction and operation cycle. During nesting season, related operations nearby are voluntarily suspended and strong night lighting is controlled to ensure that nesting and hatchlings’ entry into the sea are not disturbed. Before each breeding season, the plant invites experts such as Türkozan to brief employees and organizes beach cleanups to create a better environment for hatchlings to reach the sea. These visible and participatory conservation actions also respond to local villagers’ environmental concerns and have helped the plant win growing local trust.

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Delivered as part of ESA’s Space Resilience Nodes initiative, the services will help the State Fire Service and crisis management teams anticipate floods, track active fires, and monitor river ice through winter and spring.

WARSAW, Poland, Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ICEYE, the world leader in sovereign intelligence from space, and the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CBK PAN) announced a contract under which ICEYE will supply flood, wildfire, and river ice monitoring to Civil Security Hub Poland (CS Hub PL), Poland’s node in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space Resilience Nodes initiative. The agreement gives CS Hub PL standing access to ICEYE disaster monitoring under a subscription model, rather than requiring services to be activated separately for each event. The contract is part of ESA’s European Resilience from Space for Earth Observation (ERS-EO) initiative, which aims to give Europe reliable, secure, timely, “always on” access to independent space-based information during natural disasters and other crises.

A Space Resilience Node gives national crisis management and civil protection authorities rapid access to space-based data and services, delivered into the tools and workflows they already use. In Poland, that node is CS Hub PL, led by the Crisis Information Centre of CBK PAN, with ICEYE among its partners. The Hub combines satellite data, drone imagery, and expert knowledge into ready-to-use information for public services responding to crises, and its experience is informing the nodes now being developed in other European countries.

Under the contract, ICEYE will deliver its full Flood Solutions Suite to CS Hub PL, providing intelligence across the flood lifecycle. Flood Early Warning forecasts large-scale flooding up to four days in advance. As an event develops, Flood Rapid Impact maps flood extent within hours and can update as often as every three hours. Flood Insights then provides more detailed observed flood data, including extent, water depth, and building-level impacts, within 24 hours of a flood’s peak, with daily updates as conditions evolve.

ICEYE will also provide a wildfire pilot service that combines OroraTech’s thermal detection capabilities with radar and optical satellite data to track active fires, assess building damage through smoke and darkness, and map the area burned once a fire is out. During winter and spring, ICEYE will provide a river ice monitoring service for validation in Poland, tracking ice formation and movement to give Polish authorities earlier visibility into conditions that can contribute to ice-jam flooding.

The contract builds on earlier collaboration between ICEYE, CBK PAN, and ESA, including operational support during Storm Boris in September 2024, an activation already communicated under the Civil Security Hub name. ICEYE delivered flood data every 24 hours to CBK PAN’s Crisis Information Centre, which passed the data to the State Fire Service, regional and local crisis management teams, and hydrological services. Flood Rapid Impact was the main source of flood information during the first four days of the event, according to the Crisis Information Centre. ICEYE developed and matured these flood and wildfire services with ESA and CBK PAN through the COSMOS project under ESA’s Civil Security from Space initiative. ICEYE’s flood monitoring was further developed for Polish end users through CS Hub PL’s Innovation Pipeline-as-a-Service.

ICEYE’s flood intelligence is already used by government and emergency management organizations around the world, and the company has captured and analyzed more than 600 flood events globally. ICEYE’s synthetic aperture radar satellites can image the ground through clouds, rain, smoke, and darkness, helping provide timely disaster intelligence when aircraft and optical satellites may be limited. ICEYE has launched more than 80 satellites to date.

“Poland, working with ESA, has shown how a Space Resilience Node works in practice, and Civil Security Hub Poland is a strong model for the nodes being built across Europe,” said Andy Read, Vice President, Government Solutions, ICEYE. “The European Space Agency has set a clear goal: a resilient, sovereign, and responsive European capability that delivers trusted information when and where it is most needed. When a flood or wildfire hits, civil protection teams need to see what is happening on the ground within hours, through clouds and smoke, and inside the systems they already use. As more European countries build their own Space Resilience Nodes, we look forward to supporting them alongside CS Hub PL.”

“During Storm Boris, ICEYE flood data reached our crisis management partners within hours, in the first critical days of the event,” said Jakub Ryzenko, Head of Civil Security Hub Poland and of the Crisis Information Centre of CBK PAN. “With ICEYE services now available through Civil Security Hub Poland, we can offer the State Fire Service, regional crisis teams, and hydrological services this capability before, during, and after an event.”

Under the agreement, Polish Space Resilience Node teams can support partner countries upon request, extending the value of Poland’s national capability across the region. ESA’s wider Space Resilience Nodes initiative is designed to support pooling and sharing of interoperable capabilities among national nodes, including during cross-border and multi-agency disaster response. ICEYE will continue to work with ESA and CS Hub PL as that wider framework develops.

About ICEYE

ICEYE is the world leader in sovereign intelligence from space. We deliver persistent monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to changes in any location on Earth.

ICEYE owns the world’s largest and most advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation. To our customers we provide intelligence with unmatched quality, latency and revisit times, in any weather, day or night. To governments who choose to operate their own constellation we provide this proven capability as a sovereign system.

ICEYE-built constellations serve customers in defense and intelligence, environmental monitoring, insurance and emergency management. We enable fast decisions that contribute to a safer future.

Natively European, founded in Finland. ICEYE operates globally with over 1,500 employees.

We’re a growing international team of builders. iceye.com/joinus

About Civil Security Hub Poland

Civil Security Hub Poland (CS Hub PL) combines satellite data, drone technologies, innovative solutions and expert knowledge into ready-to-use tools that help public services respond to crises quickly, effectively and safely. As part of the European Space Agency’s Space Resilience Nodes initiative, the Hub works with public administration and emergency services to respond faster and more effectively to threats such as floods and fires. It also works with technology providers to develop products that strengthen civil security. Its Innovation Pipeline-as-a-Service model gives new solutions a place to be tested and deployed against real operational needs, and it builds users’ skills through training and trials based on realistic scenarios. CS Hub PL was initiated and is operated by the Crisis Information Centre of the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CIK CBK PAN), together with CloudFerro, ICEYE, the Warsaw University of Technology and the European Space Foundation. Learn more and subscribe to the newsletter at www.cshub.pl.

About the Crisis Information Centre of the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CIK CBK PAN)

The Crisis Information Centre (CIK) grew out of the work of CBK PAN’s remote sensing specialists during the 2010 floods, when they gathered imagery from Europe’s then-emerging Copernicus satellite system. As the initiator and operator of Civil Security Hub Poland, CIK verifies the quality of products and services developed within the Hub and supports end users. It also works with the European Space Foundation to promote the use of satellite technologies for civil security. During the September 2024 floods, CIK launched dedicated satellite monitoring and delivered data and reports every few hours to the State Fire Service, crisis management centres and IMGW-PIB. CIK is part of the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CBK PAN). CBK PAN is headquartered in Warsaw, has operated since 1977, and researches near-Earth space, the Solar System and the Earth using space technologies and satellite techniques. It has developed more than 90 research instruments flown in space, including Poland’s first scientific satellites, Lem and Heweliusz. More at https://cbkpan.pl/en/.

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