Oliver Bierhoff invests in start-up Sorare

The start-up Sorare once again convinces investors as a digital panini magazine. It received 40 million euros in a financing round. Already in the past, a German footballer had invested

The world of sportsmen discovers a new form of investment: start-ups. Thus, the current round of financing of the fantasy football start-up Sorare includes several professional footballers: Ex-national player and DFB director Oliver Bierhoff is investing, as is French international Antoine Griezmann. However, nothing is known about the amount of the investments.

In total, Sorare raised €40 million in its Series A funding. The round was led by Benchmark Capital, with Accel Partners and two other business angels: US media entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck and Alexis Ohanian, one of the co-founders of the Reddit platform.

Sorare, founded in 2018, is a kind of digital Panini booklet: users can act as managers to put together a team of footballers and compete against each other. Sorare buys the image rights from 130 clubs worldwide, but the player cards are limited. According to the company, the blockchain technology prevents fraud, thus ensuring that the cards are not copied. The stakes are sometimes very high. On February 21, 2021, for example, someone paid $120,000 for a Cristiano Ronaldo card.

The start-up is profitable according to its own information, the monthly turnover is 750,000 euros. This also made some footballers' hearts beat faster in the past: in addition to VC Eventures and Partech, André Schürrle and professional footballer Gerard Piqué are among the existing investors.