21 OCTOBER 2026Ship

PLAYBACK at Onstage W26 Demo Day

One of 20 founders VC partners picked from 1,300+ applicants to pitch at Onstage by Sifted.

Karim Fawaz pitching PLAYBACK to a packed room at Onstage W26 Demo Day — Onstage W26 Demo Day, Underbelly Boulevard, Soho · 2026

1,300+ startups applied to Onstage W26. VC partners voted it down to a Top 100, then to a Top 20. On Wednesday, 19 of us walked on stage at Underbelly Boulevard in Soho to pitch to 200+ European investors, with Sifted livestreaming the room.

The format is brutal in the best way. Two minutes, hard stop. No deck. Three sentences projected behind you, and whatever you can say before the clock runs out.

So the three sentences had to carry everything. PLAYBACK is built with the tools elite clubs use and the world's biggest youth league. It is multi-award winning, bootstrapped and cash-flow positive, with 25+ partners in 10+ countries and 75,000+ youth players. And our AI engine has cut 34,000+ highlights from 1,100+ matches, sold through each club's own branded streaming store.

Minutes before we went on, Sifted pulled three of the finalists aside on camera. Their question to me: what does PLAYBACK do, in one line? Same answer as always: the top 1% of technology, made accessible for the 99% who play.

Karim Fawaz talking with investors after the pitches — After the pitches

Thanks to the Onstage and Sifted team for the room, and to Queen Mary and QUEST for backing it loudly, again.

Watch: Sifted's interview with the finalists before the pitches. Read: Onstage's announcement of the W26 Top 20.

All notes