The Toronto startup ecosystem has always punched above its weight class, but it’s not every day that a homegrown technology finds its way into America’s favorite pastime. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening with BatterUp Technologies, a Waterloo-based sports tech company whose virtual reality baseball training system is rapidly becoming a secret weapon for Major League Baseball teams looking to gain a competitive edge.
“We basically built a system that can mimic any pitcher in baseball with about 98% accuracy,” explains Sanjay Mehta, founder and CEO of BatterUp. “Players can step into our simulator and face virtual versions of Justin Verlander or Shohei Ohtani before they ever see them in real life.”
The technology works by capturing thousands of data points from real MLB pitchers – everything from release point and spin rate to the subtle wrist movements that make certain pitches particularly devastating. This data gets fed into a proprietary machine learning algorithm that creates a digital twin of each pitcher, complete with their unique delivery quirks and pitch patterns.
What makes the Ontario-built system different from previous batting simulators is its uncanny ability to recreate the psychological experience of facing elite pitchers. The company’s breakthrough came when they focused not just on pitch characteristics but on recreating the exact visual experience batters have in the box.
“A lot of players will tell you that hitting is mostly about pattern recognition – your brain is making split-second decisions based on what it sees in the first few milliseconds after release,” says Dr. Elena Kazan, BatterUp’s lead neuroscientist. “We’ve mapped those visual cues precisely, which is why players report our simulation feels so authentic.”
The Toronto Blue Jays became early adopters, installing the system at their player development complex in Dunedin, Florida last season. According to team insiders, several players credited the technology with helping them prepare for particularly challenging pitchers. What started as a Canadian experiment has now spread to at least seven MLB clubs, though the company remains tight-lipped about specific teams due to confidentiality agreements.
“I can say that teams using our system improved their collective batting average against top-tier pitchers by nearly 20 points last season,” Mehta claims. That might not sound like much to casual fans, but in baseball, where championships are often decided by razor-thin margins, it represents a significant advantage.
The company’s rise mirrors Ontario’s growing influence in the sports technology space. The province has become an unlikely hotbed for innovation at the intersection of athletics and computer science, supported by institutions like the University of Waterloo’s Human Performance Lab and the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Toronto.
“Ontario has this unique combination of engineering talent, sports science expertise, and access to capital that makes it perfect for developing next-generation sports technology,” says Priya Chopra, managing partner at Maple Leaf Ventures, which led BatterUp’s $11.2 million Series A funding round last year.
Statistics Canada reports that sports technology exports from Ontario have grown by 34% since 2020, with baseball-specific innovations leading the charge. The province’s proximity to major league markets in the northeastern United States, combined with a favorable exchange rate, has created a competitive advantage for Canadian sports tech startups.
BatterUp’s technology isn’t just about helping professional players, though. The company recently launched a scaled-down version that’s being installed in batting cages and training facilities across North America. Youth players can now experience what it’s like to face pitching that matches their development level, with the system adjusting difficulty based on the batter’s age and skill.
“We’re seeing incredible results with young players,” says former Blue Jays hitting coach Guillermo Martinez, who now works as a technical advisor for BatterUp. “Kids are developing pitch recognition skills years earlier than they typically would because they’re getting thousands more meaningful reps.”
The Ontario government has taken notice as well. As part of its Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Strategy, the province awarded BatterUp a $3.5 million grant to expand operations and create an additional 47 high-tech jobs in the Kitchener-Waterloo region.
Not everyone is thrilled about the technology’s rapid adoption, however. Some baseball purists worry that the sport is becoming too technical, stripping away the human elements that make it special. Others raise concerns about competitive balance, questioning whether smaller market teams will be able to afford cutting-edge training tools.
“There’s always going to be resistance to new technology in baseball,” acknowledges Mehta. “But the reality is that players want every advantage they can get. Our system is just helping them prepare more effectively.”
The company is already looking beyond baseball. They’re developing similar systems for cricket, another sport where pitch recognition is crucial, with plans to enter markets in India and Australia next year. There’s also early-stage research into applications for tennis, golf, and even hockey.
As for what’s next in baseball training tech, BatterUp is tight-lipped but hints at developments that sound straight out of science fiction. They’re experimenting with haptic feedback systems that would allow batters to actually feel the sensation of contact with different pitch types.
“The goal isn’t to replace traditional practice,” Mehta emphasizes. “It’s to augment it in ways that weren’t possible before. When a player steps into the batter’s box against a pitcher they’ve never faced, we want them to feel like they’ve seen those pitches hundreds of times already.”
With the World Series approaching and teams looking for every possible advantage, don’t be surprised if Ontario’s baseball innovation ends up influencing who takes home the Commissioner’s Trophy this fall. Not bad for a technology born in a province better known for hockey than for home runs.
