Paris based fantasy football game developer Sorare secures €3.5M seed funding

Sorare, the Paris-based developers of a global fantasy football game have raised €3.5M in July 2020, in a seed funding round led by e.ventures which also saw participation from Fabric Ventures, Semantic Ventures, World Cup Champion André Schürrle and existing investors.

The fresh funds will enable Sorare to significantly increase its headcount, as demand for their football gaming cards is thriving thanks to a heavily growing user base. The company also plans to finalize licensing collaborations with five leagues and 150 clubs by the end of 2020.

The French startup has created an online space where users can freely buy and sell rare digital collectibles representing football players ranked according to their performances in real matches. The Ethereum blockchain is used to establish the identity of the owner of the digital card at any given time and secures the cards’ digital scarcity. It creates a new level of confidence and freedom for gamers.

The team’s mission is to become the go-to game and help users enjoy live football. Sorare enables users to play fantasy football with skin in the game, as they can truly own and trade their digital player cards. More than 70 football clubs from Europe, the United States, and Asia have already entered into a partnership with Sorare to issue legitimate licensed cards so that football fans can collect and play with their favorite players like Juventus, Atletico, and Olympique Lyonnais. Building a presence in Sorare offers those clubs exposure to a global audience and a new chance to earn money.

The company was founded in 2018 by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort and the game was launched in 2019. The two founders saw the potential of blockchain technology to create innovation in the sports gaming industry. The Sorare team claims they are already profitable, and have sold cards worth US$1M across 50 countries in a span of just 12 months.

Nicolas Julia, CEO at Sorare was quoted to have said, “People are buying $370 Billion of collectibles per year. Sorare’s mission is to make fantasy football global and rewarding with a new kind of collectibles: digital football cards. We are creating the easiest way for football fans to leverage their football knowledge and play with skin in the game. We are delighted to be backed by an incredible syndicate of investors who will help us drive the adoption of fantasy football forward.”

Sorare secured €500K seed funding in May 2019. In the latter part of 2019, Sorare signed an agreement with football giants Atlético Madrid, Valencia CF and Schalke 04. Since then, the budding company has been increasing its community nonstop within the wide-ranging field of mainstream football fans and collectors. The trading platform has increased by 10x of its volume from US$30K in December 2019 to US$350K in June 2020.