SoftBank Leads $680M Series B for NFT Soccer Platform Sorare

Paris-based Sorare will use the new funding to open its first US office and to explore other opportunities outside of soccer, as well as hire new employees.

article-image

Source: Shutterstock

share

key takeaways

  • With this new investment, the company said it is now valued at $4.3 billion
  • In February, the company previously raised $50 million in a Series A round

The soccer-focused crypto platform Sorare has closed one of Europe’s largest Series B funding rounds at $680 million, led by SoftBank.

Investors in the round also include participation from Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and Liontree, as well as previous investors such as Benchmark, Accel and Partech, and business angels including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and football players Gerard Piqué, Rio Ferdinand, Antoine Griezmann and César Azpilicueta, Sorare said. 

In February, the company previously raised $50 million in a Series A round. With this new investment, the company said it is now valued at $4.3 billion.

The company was founded in 2018 as an online game for users to buy officially licensed cards of soccer players, which are traded in the form of NFTs. Players can build teams and play against each other through the platform and face outcomes based on the players’ outcome in reality during a game. 

“When my co-founder and I first laid out our vision for Sorare in the summer of 2018, our ambition was to create a new game that could unlock the limitless potential of non fungible technology. Because of our shared passion for the beautiful game, creating a fantasy football product was the perfect place to begin our journey,” Nicolas Julia, co-founder and CEO of Sorare said in a blog post

Sorare
Sorare founders Nicolas Julia (left) and Adrien Montfort; Source: Sorare

Paris-based Sorare will use the new funding to recruit new talent in Europe and the US, sign new partnerships, accelerate on mobile and marketing, and expand into new sports in 2022, beyond the world of soccer. 

Although Sorare already holds a handful of partnerships with over 50 national teams and clubs, including soccer teams like Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Juventus, it also plans to use the funding to launch new partnerships with the top 20 soccer leagues onboard and the top 50 national teams, Julia said. 

Earlier this month, the company also announced a partnership with LaLiga soccer league, which is home to the top professional soccer teams in Spain and is one of the top soccer leagues in the world. 

In general, the NFT space has taken the world by storm. In recent months, certain NFTs have sold for $69 million, along with their marketplaces such as OpenSea reporting monthly trading volumes of over $3 billion.

During a fireside chat at Messari’s Mainnet conference on Monday, OpenSea Co-Founder Devin Finzer said that despite the surging popularity in art and collectibles on the marketplace, gaming could be the “next frontier” for non-fungible tokens, Blockworks reported.

“I actually still believe this. A lot of games have been incredibly successful. I really do think gaming is the next frontier for NFTs,” Finzer said at the conference.


Are you a UK or EU reader that can’t get enough investor-focused content on digital assets?Join us in London on November 15th and 16th for the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) London. Use code ARTICLE for £75 off your ticket. Buy it now.


Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

Interchain Labs will focus on sovereign L1s and institutional demand, abandoning plans for smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub

article-image

Also, only three tokens have outperformed bitcoin so far this year: XMR, HYPE and SKY

article-image

The fund group has submitted proposals in recent months for other funds that would hold litecoin, solana, XRP, HBAR, Sui and others

article-image

Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow

article-image

Ondo Finance’s acquisition of blockchain development company Strangelove follows its buy of Oasis Pro

article-image

Cryptocurrency and stock traders alike had a lot to unpack Wednesday