Peter Fenton, General Partner at Benchmark commented: “We’re thrilled to partner with Sorare as their lead Series A investor. Today is a watershed moment – both for Sorare as a company and for our community – that will enable us to touch new markets and radically improve our product to become the game within the beautiful game.” We’re building a gaming experience fueled by passion where fans can connect with football and a global community. Nicolas Julia, CEO at Sorare explained: “Sorare was born from our love for football. Since launching, over 120 football clubs have launched digital cards on Sorare, including five European Champions. ![]() The company is already profitable and has recorded an incredible 52% month-on-month growth rate over the past 12 months, going from €50K euro worth of cards traded on the platform in January 2020, to €3.5M euro in January 2021, across 120 countries. Through tradable digital cards, which are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on a blockchain, the platform enables players to genuinely own their collectibles, which can be used in its collective fantasy football experience – in which players can earn prizes. Sorare aims to build “the game within the game” by offering fans the opportunity to celebrate, share, and own their football passion. The new investment brings Sorare’s total funding to-date to around $60M USD, and the company says it will use the new capital to fuel growth of its community, accelerate hiring, and launch a mobile application. Other investors included Accel and new business angels Alexis Ohanian (Reddit co-founder), Gary Vaynerchuk (Vaynermedia CEO), and football players Antoine Griezmann and Rio Ferdinand. We believe this is a huge opportunity to create the next sports entertainment giant, bringing Sorare to more football fans and organisations, and to introduce the same proven model to other sports and sports fans worldwide,” Sorare co-founder and CEO Nicolas Julia said.Digital collectible football platform Sorare has secured $50M USD in Series A financing, in a round led by Benchmark. We are thrilled by the success we have seen so far, but this is just the beginning. “We saw the immense potential that blockchain and NFTs brought to unlock a new way for football clubs, footballers, and their fans to experience a deeper connection with each other. Sales have grown by 51x between the second quarter of 2020 and the second quarter of 2021. There are currently 600,000 registered users and 150,000 users who are buying a card or composing a team every month. While the volume of transaction is quite big, there is still a lot of potential for user growth. Sorare doesn’t take a cut on player-to-player transactions right now. A total of $150 million worth of cards have been traded on the platform since January. That’s why players often buy and sell cards from other players - there are even third-party websites that help you track auctions. Over time, the value of a card can go up or down. They can also manage a squad of players and earn points based on real-life performances. Players can then buy those new cards and add them to their collection. Sorare generates revenue by issuing new cards on the platform. Some of the startup’s existing investors are also investing once again, such as Benchmark, Accel, Headline and various business angels. In addition to SoftBank’s Vision Fund team, Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and Liontree are also participating in the round. ![]() You can expect more partnership announcements with professional sports organizations in the future. With today’s funding round, the company plans to expand to new sports, open an office in the U.S., hire more people and invest in marketing campaigns. It creates a barrier to entry for other companies in the space. What makes Sorare unique is that it has partnered with 180 football organizations, including some of the most famous clubs in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Liverpool and Juventus. Transactions are all recorded on the Ethereum blockchain. Players can buy and sell cards from other players. Each digital card is registered as a unique token on the Ethereum blockchain. Sorare has built a fantasty football (soccer) platform based on NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 has led a $680 million Series B round, which values the company at $4.3 billion. French startup Sorare has announced that it has raised a significant funding round.
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