(Bloomberg) —
Fantasy sports platform Sorare has raised $680 million from a group led by SoftBank Group Corp. in one of the biggest-ever investment rounds in a French startup.
The investment values Sorare at $4.3 billion, and SoftBank Group International Chief Executive Officer Marcelo Claure will join the board, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sorare issues player cards in the form of non-fungible tokens that users can collect and trade. More than $150 million worth of the cards have been traded on the platform since January, and Sorare has more than 600,000 users, the company said.
“It’s very early and every industry that has a digital appeal will come to NFTs because it’s going to change the way we own things online,” Sorare Chief Executive Officer Nicolas Julia said in an interview. “It’s going to be as impactful as mobile or any big tech shift.”
Professional soccer players Gerard Piqué, Antoine Griezmann, Rio Ferdinand and César Azpilicueta also participated in the round along with Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and Liontree. Existing holders Benchmark, Accel and Headline also invested.
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