Justin Hafner, co-founder and CEO of KinoTek, a Portland-based digital health technology company, has been named to a prestigious list of rising stars in the sports business.
Front Office Sports, a media company that covers the business side of sports, announced Tuesday that Hafner had been selected as a Rising 25 Award winner. The company created the award in 2017 to annually recognize 25 young, up-and-coming leaders in the business of sports. Hafner, who’s 24, is the first Maine-based business leader to receive the award.
Front Office Sports selected the 25 winners from a pool of nearly 500 nominations. There will be a virtual celebration in the fall.
Hafner, himself a former competitive college athlete who holds records within the University of Maine’s swimming and diving program, co-founded KinoTek in 2018 while studying kinesiology at UMaine. The company’s first software product, Move.ly, uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to capture objective movement data that it then uses to create computer visualizations of the human body, including measurements of things like joint range of motion and asymmetry. The product is being marketed to physical therapists, chiropractors, occupational therapists, athletic trainers, and any other licensed professional who uses movement as a way to assess, treat, or prescribe rehabilitation—a customer segment Hafner calls “movement clinicians.” The idea is that this visual representation of how the body is moving in realtime will help inform clinicians, educate patients and improve overall quality of care.
“To be nominated for this award is humbling,” Hafner said. “It’s hard to describe how it feels to be named to The Rising 25 List. This award is the result of the hard work of the entire team at KinoTek—none of this is possible without each and every one of them.”
He added: “Being the first leader based in Maine to win this award is a great honor. I hope this can motivate other young leaders in the state to pursue their dreams and take a chance because you never know what is possible until you try.”
The news of Hafner’s award comes on the heels of several other positive headlines for the company, including closing on a $600,000 pre-seed funding round, completion of a partnership it inked with Microsoft in 2020, creation of its inaugural board of directors, its selection into the leAD Lake Nona Sports & Health Tech Academy, and its acceptance into the Roux Institute’s Startup Residency Program.
