Trax founders test Swish's basketball sensor in a six-month NBA pilot

Why it matters

Bar-El is testing whether Trax's computer-vision playbook can move from enterprise retail into youth sports, where hardware installations and player usage fees create a tougher distribution problem.

Joel Bar-El and Dror Feldheim, the founders who turned store-shelf images into structured retail data at Trax, are applying the same playbook to basketball with Swish Basket, whose first major proving ground is a six-month NBA research and development pilot.

Bar-El described the NBA as Swish's first "client and partner" in an interview published Monday by CTech. The league's own description is narrower. The NBA selected Swish in January as one of five companies for its 2026 Launchpad cohort after evaluating more than 200 applicants worldwide.

Launchpad participants receive access to NBA and WNBA personnel and properties while refining their products. The league calls the engagement a pilot and says it uses the results to evaluate whether to pursue a broader strategic partnership. That makes the NBA a serious design partner and testing environment for Swish, while stopping short of establishing a league-wide commercial deployment.

For Bar-El, the project marks a return to early-stage product building after more than a decade managing Trax through rapid expansion, a large financing and a painful reset. He and Feldheim stepped away from Trax's daily operations in May 2024, remaining on its board. On February 5, 2026, a Gemspring Capital affiliate acquired and combined FORM with Trax's image-recognition business, Trax IR.

"I didn't want to just run another big company, but to return to technology, innovation and building from scratch," Bar-El told CTech.

Reusing the Trax thesis

Bar-El's career has repeatedly centered on translating activity in the physical world into software. Before Trax, he co-founded visual development software company Tersus and ran wealth-management software provider Sentryi, which was sold to IRESS. He also managed SunGard Business Integration operations in Asia-Pacific and North America.

Bar-El and Feldheim founded Trax in Singapore in 2010. Trax used computer vision to identify products, prices, promotions and shelf availability inside stores, giving consumer brands a digital view of retail execution. The founders divided the problem along familiar lines: Feldheim brought experience in consumer goods and retail, while Bar-El led the technology and management work.

Trax's official history lists a $640 million Series E led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and BlackRock in 2021. Bar-El told CTech that Trax raised about $1.2 billion over its life, with roughly half coming through secondary transactions, and reached annual sales of about $180 million at its peak. Those operating figures are Bar-El's account.

The capital environment that supported Trax's expansion reversed as interest rates rose in 2022. Trax cut jobs and pushed toward operating balance. Bar-El told CTech that a sale was signed in mid-2024, although the transaction price was not part of the public announcement. The eventual combination placed Trax IR's image-recognition software alongside FORM's field-management and retail-execution products.

Swish carries the core technical idea into a smaller and more personal setting. A retail shelf becomes a basketball court. Products become players and shots. The output shifts from merchandising data to coaching feedback, competition and a digital record of a player's development.

The court becomes the console

Swish says its sensor mounts above a basketball backboard and uses lidar and AI to measure shot accuracy, grouping, arc and body posture. Its software recognizes subscribed players, records their attempts and provides personalized feedback. Made shots can generate video clips, while the app supports challenges, rankings and remote competitions.

Bar-El told CTech that Swish initially plans to target schools, colleges and high schools, charging for the sensor and collecting a usage fee from participating players.

That model gives Swish a recurring software component, though it also creates a demanding distribution problem. Every new court requires a hardware sale, installation and institutional buyer before the player network can grow. The NBA pilot gives Swish access to a concentrated group of credible testing sites. Swish has said its technology is being tested inside NBA-operated international basketball schools.

The NBA relationship also puts Swish close to the organization whose standard it wants young players to measure themselves against. A successful pilot could give schools confidence in the hardware and help Swish recruit players into its ranking and challenge system. The Launchpad program is structured to assess that possibility; it does not guarantee the next contract.

A crowded market for shooting data

Swish is entering a category with established alternatives and sharply different approaches to distribution.

HomeCourt is already an official NBA partner and uses an iPhone or iPad camera rather than permanently installed sensors. Players can prop up a device, receive shot and movement analysis, and participate in virtual competitions. Its lack of specialized hardware lowers the barrier to trying the product.

Noah Basketball sells installed computer-vision systems and data services to teams and facilities. Noah says its technology has analyzed shots across high schools, college teams and NBA franchises. It also offers an iPhone application for individual players.

Swish's bet is that a fixed sensor can collect richer, more consistent data while its app makes the installation useful to a larger community than coaches and professional teams. The persistent player identity is central to that strategy. If athletes can carry verified performance records between courts, teams and competitions, each installation becomes part of a wider network rather than a standalone training machine.

Bar-El has seen this adoption problem before. Trax had to convince large consumer brands that cameras could produce reliable operational data from messy stores. Swish must convince schools and players that instrumenting a court creates enough daily value to justify hardware and usage costs.

The NBA pilot gives Bar-El and Feldheim a credible place to answer that question. Their second act starts with a familiar technical premise and a very different customer: players who expect the data collection to feel like part of the game.