Sweden’s startup GOALS has collected 15 million dollars in a seed round led by Northzone, the venture capital firm. The round was backed by many new investors including Not Boring Capital and Cassius alongside existing ones, Berliner VC Cherry Ventures, Londoner Moonfire Ventures, Michigan-based Banana Capital. It also attracted many angel investors including Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia, FC Barcelona star Gerard Pique, and Axie Infinity COO Aleksander Larsen.
Stockholm-based startup offers a gameplay-first, multiplayer-focused, and esports-ready football game experience by offering in-game assets to own, share, trade, or sell in the marketplace for a real-life money. The company is expecting to double its club size and brings 30 game developers before the year ends.
The fresh boots are aimed at assisting the company in doubling the club size, bringing up 30 game developers to the majors by years’ end. To date, GOALS has scored $19 million.
“We have been in the very fortunate position where investors reached out to us before we were actually fundraising so we were able to pick the ones we felt had the best fit for GOALS,” commented co-founder and CEO Andreas Thorstensson. “After playing most football games on the market and observing the esports scene for a long time I could see that gamers deserved something new. GOALS is a gameplay-first football game. Free to play, cross-play, multiplayer-focused, and esports-ready where the players can finally own their in-game items instead of renting them.”
“GOALS is not just a game, but a team on a mission,” commented pre-seed lead Cherry Ventures’ Sophia Bendz. “In just a few short weeks, GOALS grew its following to well over 25,000 people on social media and thousands upon thousands in Discord. GOALS is creating something people have long wanted.”
