Sorare to raise a $680 million Series B round led by Softbank

Sorare, a Paris, France-based developer of a blockchain-enabled fantasy soccer platform, announced closing a $680 million series B funding round.

The money was raised from investors led by Softbank via its Vision 2 fund, joined by Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP, Liontree, Benchmark, Accel and Headline.

Deal values the company at $4.3 billion.

Sorare, founded in 2018 and led by CEO Nicolas Julia, uses the Ethereum blockchain for generating unique digital trading cards representing professional soccer players that can be traded by users.

The company creates digital items known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, used as digitally scarce soccer card that users collect to create fantasy teams that compete weekly. Players can buy and sell cards from other players. Transactions are all recorded on the Ethereum blockchain.

Sorare partnered with 180 football organizations, including some of the most famous clubs in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Liverpool and Juventus.

It previously raised $50 million in February 2021.