AI-powered video company Snow Eye is using technology developed in surfing to automatically capture, identify, and deliver ski runs. In its most recent fund raising round, the start up added Olympic champion Bode Miller and former British ski racer Charlie Raposo to its group of investors.
Gone may soon be the days of coaches standing at the bottom of a ski course with a camera, freezing their hands off while trying to capture every athlete’s run. Snow Eye’s AI-powered cameras automatically records and tracks skiers and snowboarders, allowing resorts, clubs, coaches, and athletes to capture runs without requiring someone to operate a camera for every training run. And the idea has attracted backing from people who understand the value of ski video firsthand, including Olympic champion Bode Miller and former British ski racer Charlie Raposo.
Snow Eye co-founder and CEO Alessandro Fracassi confirmed to SnowBrains that Miller and Raposo participated in the company’s latest fundraising round, led by Data Tech Fund and Linkin Capital. Miller and Raposo are joined by influential figures from other parts of the sports industry, including Pau Serracanta, the former Managing Director of MotoGP.
Built by Skiers and Surfers
For Fracassi, Snow Eye grew out of a personal frustration. “Snow sports have always been hard to film,” Fracassi says. “I’ve skied all my life and always wished I could relive my best turns.” That experience helped inspire the creation of Snow Eye, which Fracassi co-founded with Irish technology expert Andrew East.
The pair previously worked together on Surf Eye, an AI-powered camera network designed specifically for action sports. Founded in Portugal in 2022, the company developed technology capable of automatically recording, tracking, and delivering high-resolution footage of surfers without requiring a camera operator to manually follow every wave.
The same basic problem exists in skiing. A coach standing beside a race course can film one athlete at a time. A fixed camera can capture a section of the course but may miss other parts of the run. A follow-cam provides excellent footage but requires another person to follow the skier. Drones can offer another perspective but are difficult or prohibited to operate at many ski resorts.
Snow Eye’s approach is different. Its AI technology can identify and track multiple skiers and snowboarders, even when they are captured from different camera angles, automatically organizing the footage so athletes can find their own runs.
East brings experience from the company’s surfing technology to the challenge.
“After developing the world’s largest Surf AI video capture system network in Surf Eye, Snow Eye is naturally the next challenge,” East says. “Developing technology that transforms and enhances a sport truly inspires and motivates me.”
The technology is designed to remove much of the manual work traditionally associated with filming and editing action sports.
Every Run, Automatically
Snow Eye’s central proposition is simple: every run is captured. The company’s system uses AI to detect and track skiers and snowboarders as they move through the camera network. Once an athlete identifies themselves, their runs can be automatically organized and delivered to their account.
For training sessions where a coach has to film several athletes from their club among dozens of skiers, this can save valuable time that would otherwise be spent sorting through footage manually.
Video has long been one of the most important tools in ski coaching. Coaches use footage to analyze body position, line choice, timing, technique, and tactical decisions. In alpine racing, video can also be used to compare different athletes or overlay runs to identify where time is gained or lost. The problem has traditionally been obtaining enough footage.
A coach cannot stand at every point on a course and film every athlete. Even when cameras are installed, someone generally has to manage the footage, identify the athlete, trim the relevant section, and distribute it.
Snow Eye is attempting to automate that process. Its platform can also incorporate multi-camera videography, analytics, leaderboards, online coaching powered by Pactto, Clubhouse TV, live streaming and an administrative portal, according to the company.
Bode Miller and Charlie Raposo Understand the Value
The involvement of Miller and Raposo is particularly notable because both have spent their careers in environments where video analysis can make a significant difference. Miller is one of the most accomplished alpine ski racers in history, with six Olympic medals and five World Cup overall titles. He also became known for an unconventional approach to ski racing and an obsessive interest in technique, equipment, line choice, and performance. Raposo competed internationally for Great Britain before moving into other areas of the ski industry. Both understand the importance of being able to reliably see what happened during a run.
For elite athletes, video feedback is a critical part of understanding performance and analyzing technique. A single run can contain hundreds of movements and decisions that are difficult for an athlete to evaluate from memory alone. Reliable video allows athletes and coaches to go back, slow the footage down, compare runs, and identify details that might otherwise be missed.
Snow Eye’s goal is to make that process available without requiring a person to operate a camera every time an athlete comes down the hill.
Snow Eye on the Snow
The company’s technology is already operating at ski areas including indoor ski centers Snø Oslo in Norway and Ice Mountain in Belgium, as well as conventional ski resorts, such as the ski school at Pine Knob in Michigan and the snow tubing hill at Mt. Rose in Nevada.
That existing network gives Snow Eye an opportunity to refine the technology in different environments, from indoor snow facilities to traditional outdoor ski resorts.
The broader ambition is to make automated sports video a normal part of the experience rather than a premium service reserved for elite athletes.
With investors such as Bode Miller and Charlie Raposo now backing the company, Snow Eye has some serious ski-world experience behind its attempt to make that vision a reality.
