Germany-based football news aggregator OneFootball has secured $300m in a series D round featuring gaming and blockchain technology providers Animoca Brands and Dapper Labs.
Venture capital group Liberty City Ventures led the round, which included Alsara Investment Group, DAH Beteiligungs, Quiet Capital, RIT Capital Partners and Senator Investment Group.
Founded in 2008, OneFootball has built an online media portal that allows football fans to stream related news content and matches through free and pay-per-view modalities. The app can be accessed in 12 languages and offers coverage of more than 200 leagues across the world.
The funding will help the company expand its presence globally and grow OneFootball Labs, a joint scheme recently launched with Animoca Brands and Liberty City Ventures that enables football clubs, leagues, federations and players to offer non-fungible token (NFT)-fuelled fan engagement services.
Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, has taken board seats at OneFootball and OneFootball Labs as part of the deal. He said: “Animoca Brands is proud to have played a role in nearly every significant milestone in the development of true digital property rights via NFTs.
“Bringing Web3 to the biggest sport in the world – football – through our participation in the OneFootball Labs joint venture is a match made in heaven.”
OneFootball was reportedly valued at approximately $549m in a $122m funding round in June 2021, with half the funding being provided by unnamed US-based growth investors. The remainder was a secondary investment in which unidentified shareholders divested their stakes.
Sports apparel manufacturer Adidas had invested an undisclosed sum in the company in 2017, three years after a $7m round led by Union Square Ventures that in turn followed a $13m series A led by Earlybird Venture Capital in 2013.
Image courtesy of OneFootball GmbH.
