Topgolf founders raise $34 million to scale Poolhouse platform

Topgolf founders Steve Jolliffe and Dave Jolliffe have raised $34 million for Poolhouse, a UK-based sports entertainment startup that is pitching a high-tech version of pool with score-tracking technology, food and drink. The financing is a fresh test of whether investors still believe the Topgolf formula can be repeated in another in-person leisure category.

The Jolliffe brothers founded Topgolf in 2000 and sold it to Callaway for $2 billion in 2020, turning a driving-range novelty into one of the clearest examples of tech-driven leisure expansion. Poolhouse is trying to borrow that playbook for the competitive socialising market, where operators mix games, bars and restaurants into a single night out. The company’s model goes a step further than simply opening its own venues: Poolhouse says it wants to sell its technology platform to other operators.

That platform angle matters. A venue business depends on footfall, spending per head and expensive real estate, while software can offer recurring revenue if operators adopt it at scale. Poolhouse’s pitch is that interactive pool, supported by technology that tracks scores and creates a gamified experience, can become as familiar in the leisure trade as Topgolf’s automated driving bays and Puttshack’s tech-led mini-golf concept.

The investors backing the round include Sharp Alpha and DMG Ventures, while Active Partners also announced an investment in Poolhouse. A Financial Times result said the backers also included David Blitzer, the billionaire Blackstone executive. For Poolhouse, the presence of investors tied to sports, media and entertainment suggests confidence that the category still has room to grow even as consumers remain selective about discretionary spending.

The central question is whether Poolhouse can become a scalable software layer for venues, or whether it will remain tied to the capital intensity of building and filling premium social spaces. Topgolf’s $2 billion sale showed that leisure concepts with a strong technology hook can produce large exits. Poolhouse is now trying to prove that the same investor appetite exists for pool.