Paris-based Sorare said the investment valued the company at
$4.3 billion.
Founded in 2018, Sorare is an online game where players buy
officially licensed cards representing soccer players and build teams which
play against each other, with the outcome based on the players' performance in
real-life games.
The cards are traded in the form of non-fungible tokens
(NFTs), a kind of cryptocurrency asset which records the ownership status of
digital goods on the blockchain.
The market for NFTs has seen explosive growth in 2021, with
collectible and sports-related the most popular types of token.
"We think NFTs represent a new paradigm in the
collectability, usability, and engagement with assets," Michel Combes, president
of SoftBank Group International, said in emailed comments.
"This evolution from physical assets to digital assets
is very powerful, and creates a lot of exciting potential business
models."
Sorare is the largest sports-based NFT platform by sales
volume, according to NonFungible.com, a website which tracks NFT market data.
It plans to open an office in the United States and expand into sports other
than soccer.
"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, CEO
and co-founder of Sorare.
"We believe this is a huge opportunity to create the
next sports entertainment giant."
Since January 2021, there have been $150 million of sales on
Sorare, which accepts payments via credit card and the cryptocurrency ether.
The most expensive unique card is of Cristiano Ronaldo, which was bought for
EUR 245,072 on March 13.
The fundraising round was SoftBank's first time investing in
Sorare, via its SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
SoftBank's Latin America fund also contributed, which Combes
said was because SoftBank can use its relationships with US and Latin American
soccer leagues and its investment in broadcaster Televisa-Univision, to
increase Sorare's user base there.
This is not SoftBank's first foray into NFTs: it also led
investment in the NFT marketplace OpenSea in July and invested in the
decentralised finance platform Juggernaut in March.
Other investors in Sorare's raise include: venture capital firms Accel and Bessemer Ventures as well as the footballers Pique, Ferdinand, France's Antoine Griezmann, and Spain's Cesar Azpilicueta. © Reuters