Olympic silver medalist and Grand Slam champion Austin Krajicek has been named the founding member of alphabeats’ Performance Collective, a newly formed collective announced at CES that unites sports, science and business leaders in shaping the future of mental performance training.
In the age of all things wellness and performance, the Dutch startup – which has already raised $4.16 million – has honed in on an often overlooked area to encourage alpha brain wave production so athletes can quickly enter a flow state to boost recovery, focus, reaction time and coordination.
The wearable tech brand offers users an EEG (electroencephalogram) headband and accompanying app. Users sport the headband and a pair of headphones while the app monitors brain activity and offers real-time feedback via music, visual cues and cognitive games – all intending to train the brain to produce more alpha waves. The training sessions, typically lasting ten minutes, have programs catering to focus, stress relief and rest/relaxation.
The announcement comes as alphabeats gears up for its expansion into the U.S., transitioning its Netherlands headquarters to sunny Los Angeles.
Now with Krajicek as its founding member, the elite athlete is representing the potential of wearable devices as a mind and performance enhancer, having used alphabeats during his training regimen leading up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he won the silver in men’s doubles tennis.
“Mental performance is absolutely crucial in tennis, where the margins are so small and you’re alone with your thoughts between points,” Krajicek said. “alphabeats has given me both greater awareness of my mental state and a new tool to navigate the highs and lows of elite competition. It’s about being able to reset and refocus quickly, no matter what.”
Additional founding members will be named in the coming months.
“The voice of the athlete has always been core to what we do at alphabeats,” alphabeats CEO and Jorrit DeVries said. “Austin brings not just his experience as an elite competitor, but also his understanding of the complete performance ecosystem. His insights will help us build an experience that truly serves the athlete.”
A former Spotify executive, DeVries will lead alphabeats’ Los Angeles office, which will house its business operations.
Last fall, alphabeats partnered with EEG headband maker Muse by Interaxon, a move that made its brain-training app available to Muse customers.
