Pongbot sponsors Cam Jordan Foundation pickleball tournament, teases AURA launch

Pongbot is trying to prove that pickleball training tech has outgrown the niche-gadget aisle. By stepping in as presenting sponsor of the second annual Cam Jordan Foundation Pickleball Tournament, the company put its brand in front of one of the sport’s most visible community events while teeing up the launch of AURA, its AI-powered multi-sport training robot.

The setting fit the message. The tournament was scheduled for Sunday, April 26, 2026, at The Exchange Pickleball + Bar in New Orleans, with a round-robin draw built for 48 players, or 24 teams, and six games apiece before the top teams moved into semifinals and finals. Awards were set for first, second and third place, and the foundation’s pricing showed the event’s scale, with presenting sponsorship at $10,000, gold at $5,000, court sponsorship at $2,500, player entry at $250 and spectator admission at $50.

Cam Jordan gives the tournament instant recognition beyond pickleball circles. The Pro Bowl defensive end for the New Orleans Saints founded the Cam Jordan Foundation to positively impact children’s lives and improve the community through resources, youth development initiatives and innovative experiences. The organization says it has expanded into scholarship support, youth camps, school visits and other programming, and Jordan is also an avid pickleball player who sees the sport as a place for connection and fun at every level.

That mix made Pongbot’s sponsorship feel less like a logo buy and more like a category play. Pongbot, founded in 2019, describes itself as an AI sports technology brand built on robotics, computer vision and machine learning. Separate reporting says it recently raised nearly RMB 200 million, about $28 million, in Series A funding, after previously pulling in more than $2.7 million on Kickstarter for its PACE tennis robots in 2024. The company also says it has more than 300,000 users worldwide, a number that suggests it is pushing hard to move from startup curiosity to mainstream training infrastructure.

AURA is the product at the center of that push. Pongbot says the robot is built for pickleball, tennis and padel, can feed balls at up to one per second, and offers more than 1,000 preset drill combinations with customizable placement, speed and spin. For everyday players, that points to the places training tech usually shows up first: coached clinics, club programming, and serious home practice setups where repetition matters as much as flash.

The tournament itself also showed how quickly this event has matured. The inaugural Cam Jordan Foundation pickleball tournament was held on July 20, 2025, at the same venue and used a King of the Court format. A year later, the shift to round robin and the addition of a presenting sponsor with national ambitions made the event look less like a one-off fundraiser and more like a recurring showcase for how pickleball’s commercial ecosystem is widening.