Maya Robertson
Building a fantasy football platform based on NFT, Paris-based startup Sorare has announced that it has raised a $680 million Series B. The funding round, which was led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, values the company at $4.3 billion.
The new funding round follows a $50 million Series A which was completed back in February. In addition to SoftBank’s Vision Fund team, Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and Liontree are also participating in the round.
Sorare traded over $150 million worth of digital cards on the platform since January. The platform currently has 600,000 registered users and 150,000 users who are buying a card or composing a team every month. From Q2 2020 to Q2 2021, the startup saw its sales increase 54x from the previous year.
The new funding round is the second-largest private fundraise among blockchain startups as well as Europe’s biggest ever Series B.
“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. We are thrilled by the success we have seen so far, but this is just the beginning. 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.
With the new funding round, Sorare plans to expand into new sports, sign new partnerships with professional sports organizations, expand the team in Europe and the U.S., and accelerate on mobile and marketing.
“We are the only ones that have bridged the gap between the game, collectibility and utility over the lifetime of sports NFTs,” Predhomme Thibaut, head of operations at Sorare, said in an interview. “U.S. companies are more about collectibility, so no, I’m not worried about them competing in the European market.”
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