Munich-based The Football Company raises €2.5M to connect football fans with fantasy gaming in metaverse

Munich-based The Football Company (TFC), an NFT based fantasy football manager, announced on Wednesday that it has raised €2.5M in its Seed round of funding to connect football fans with fantasy gaming in the Metaverse.

The funds will be used to expand into new markets, recruit new employees and set the ground to scale the leading sports NFT ecosystem. “The fresh funding will also help us to take the next steps on our journey and we are very happy to further connect the worlds of football and the metaverse,” says Ante Kristo, co-founder of TFC.

Investors in this round

The round was led by Dreamcraft Ventures, a Danish venture capital firm founded by Jesper Søgaard and Christian Kirk Rasmussen. Dreamcraft invests in tech startups in the Nordics and Germany, and helps them achieve the next rounds of funding.

Besides Dreamcraft, the round also saw participation from DapperLabs, web3 Studios, BLN Capital, various business angels, and professional football players such as Joshua Kimmich and Cesc Fabregas. 

“Driving football culture through technology”

The Football Club (TFC) is the first product of The Football Company. TFC sells tokens that represent analogue merchandise in the form of a 3D object with which users can equip their avatars. The company claims to be the world’s first football metaverse based on avatars and licensed digital collectibles and competitions.

TFC was founded by brothers and serial entrepreneurs Ante and Josip Kristo in 2020, and secured former Bayern München powerhouses Robert and Niko Kovac as founding investors for their idea.

Niko Kovac says, “The Metaverse gives football fans incredible new possibilities to express their passion for their club and show their individuality. It will raise the appeal of fantasy football to a whole new level and I am happy to be part of this movement. As a founding investor of The Football Company, I am delighted to promote an exciting and fresh facet of the sport we love so much.”

Ante Kristo outlines his mission, saying, “Our goal as football fanatics is to respect the legacy and culture of football while using cutting edge technology to create the most authentic and advanced virtual football experience yet. TFC is an extremely easy to use blockchain-based fantasy platform and free to play.”

The company generates revenue by issuing digital collectibles which can be traded on the TFC marketplace. Fans can buy those items, add them to their collection, and earn rewards by managing a squad of players in an experience based on real-life sports performances.

Footballer Cesc Fabregas says, “I’m glad to team up with TFC in order to allow football fans an easy and joyful access to the metaverse, in which they can express not just their passion for Football but also themselves and I’m looking forward to helping the company grow.”

An NFT blockchain product for the masses

TFC has a different approach to NFTs than the classic trading card, video moments or art projects that are normally out there. The company claims that At TFC, users are not just a profile picture or a username, they become an identity as a whole; they become an avatar. 

With the avatar, users are able to represent their identity in front of a global community. Avatars highlight which club the users support and which lifestyle they live. The UX concept is built all around the avatars, which are the core of the TFC ecosystem.

The company mentions in a statement that it has already positioned itself in the industry by acquiring the official DFL license and collaborations with a long list of top clubs such as Eintracht Frankfurt, VfL Wolfsburg, Hertha BSC, and Young Boys Bern.

TFC has already dropped four NFT collections with its partners, generating more than €270K in revenues in less than four weeks. All drops were sold out in less than 24 hours. The community has reached 25K users so far and is growing fast.