Sorare, a blockchain-based soccer game platform, with a player base and trading volume steadily increasing in the past year has announced $680 million worth of funding.

SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 led a new investment round of $680 million, which values the company at $4.3 billion. World-class football players like Rio Ferdinand and Gerard Pique also took part in the funding round. 

Benchmark, Accel, and Headless are among the earlier investors investing again. This speaks to the idea that investors were so confident in the startup's potential for a greater investment return.

Sorare co-founder and CEO Nicolas Julia told the press that the company's next step is to expand into other sports. In the coming months, it will also open a US office to help them to continue to expand with fans and sports leagues.

“We have ambitious plans to keep growing Sorare into a sports entertainment giant,” Julia said. 

He adds, “The new funding will be used to help us continue to grow a world-class team, expand to new leagues and new sports, and keep improving our experience for users, including shipping a mobile app."

Since January, the platform has traded over $150 million worth of cards and currently has over 600,000 users. The company said its quarterly sales increased 51 times from the previous year, and they'll be using the funding to help with their growth. They're also aiming to venture outside of soccer collectibles.

“Sorare’s game is born from our love for football and our tech expertise. 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,” said Nicolas Julia in a statement.

Sorare created a fantasy football platform that's based on NFTs. Every digital card is registered as a unique token on the Ethereum blockchain, meaning that players can buy and sell cards to other players. The Ethereum blockchain keeps track of all transactions.

The platform generates revenue by issuing unique collectible cards on the site. The new cards can be purchased by players to add to their collection and can also manage a team of players, gain points based on their performance in the game.

Pavan A

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA