Ethereum-based gaming startup Sorare raises $4 million in seed funding

Ethereum-based fantasy football gaming startup Sorare has raised $4 million in a seed funding round.

E.ventures led the round, with participation from German professional footballer Andre Schurrle, Ledger co-founder Thomas France, and venture firms Partech, Fabric Venture, and Semantic Ventures.

With the fresh capital in place, Sorare wants to double its team size from the current 6 to 12 by hiring full-stack engineers, a game economist, and a game designer, a spokesperson of the firm, told The Block. Sorare could hire more people next year and grow its team to 20-25, the spokesperson added.

Founded in 2018, Paris-based Sorare allows users to collect and trade blockchain player cards, or digital collectibles. More than 70 football clubs from across the world have partnered with Sorare to issue licensed cards, including Cristiano Ronaldo-led Juventus.

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The firm said it plans to finalize licensing partnerships with five more clubs soon and targets the total number of partnerships to 150 by the year-end.

Sorare claims to have over 20,000 users, with the top five markets being France, Russia, the U.S., Italy, and the U.K., the spokesperson said, adding that it "correlates quite well with the clubs launched."

Sorare is "already profitable," and has seen volumes on its trading platform grow by ten times from $30,000 in December 2019 to $350,000 in June 2020.

Today's seed round comes over a year after Sorare's €500,000 ($570,000) pre-seed round in May 2019, which was backed by several investors, including ConsenSys Ventures.

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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.