Web3 gaming company Unagi today announced a €4.7 million ($5 million) seed funding round as the French startup prepares to expand its NFT fantasy sports platform beyond soccer (“soccer”) and into basketball.

Unagi, which does not yet have its own website, was founded by Paris-based Charlie Guillemot.

Son of Ubisoft co-founder Yves Guillemot and former studio manager at Owlient, a free-to-play game studio that Ubisoft acquired in 2011. ; and Remi Pellerin, also formerly of Owlient.

Both Guillemot and Pellerin left Owlient in 2021 to start Unagi, who served as co-CEO and launched their first game last April.

Ultimate Champions, as their inaugural title is called, allows players to create and manage their own soccer teams using players from multiple clubs across the continent.

English league

To date, Unagi has signed contracts with around 45 clubs in Europe, including current English Premier League title contenders Arsenal, and games in Ultimate Champions are synchronized with real matches, allowing players to earn rewards based on the real-world performances of their chosen players. .

As a self-proclaimed web3 company, these rewards include an in-game currency called Champ Tokens that can be bought, earned and spent on the platform, as well as NFT (non-fungible tokens) in the form of digital player cards that can be collected and Unagi said his user base has now exceeded 220,000 mark, a trajectory that led crypto giant Binance to invest $4 million in the startup through its VC and accelerator arm Binance Labs in November, though it represented a private token. sale, rather than capital investment – ​​Binance bought $4 million in Champ tokens. At the same time, Binance also confirmed plans to deploy Ultimate Champions on the Binance-led BNB Chain, which Unagi quietly did in late January today.

On the back of this traction, Unagi has partnered with European basketball competition EuroLeague and plans to introduce a basketball version of Ultimate Champions next month.

Its latest cash injection of €4.7 million is entirely equity-based and was led by Finnish early-stage VC firm Sisu Game Ventures, with participation from Sfermion, UOB Ventures, Signum Capital, 2B Ventures and Machame.

Funding

Previously, Unagi raised €1.5 million in a pre-launch equity funding round last April from several VCs and angels, including German international soccer player Mario Götze. And in late 2021, Unagi also completed a $1.7 million private token sale from crypto-focused investors like Polygon and GSR.

So that basically means that Unagi raised a total of €6.1 million ($6.5 million) in equity funding and $5.7 million through the token sale.

Of its 220,000 registered users, Pellerin said around 70,000 are actively playing each month – the vast majority through free-to-play rather than paying for in-game assets. However, he was quick to stress that it is still very early days and with the new financial injection the company plans to expand its international team from 25 to 40 employees and develop partnerships with more sports clubs and leagues. sold. Unagi takes a 5% commission on all financial transactions on the platform. Additionally, there is scope for expansion beyond sports into the wider gaming realm in the future. It’s unclear what form it will ultimately take, whether it’s a role-playing game, a first-person shooter, or something else entirely.

“What’s really great about Web 3 is that it’s very early, the industry hasn’t found a compelling business model yet, there’s a lot of trial and error, a lot of experimentation,” Pellerin told TechCrunch. “Any type of existing game can be converted to web3 because the essence of web3 gaming is ownership of game assets, and that’s what we’re exploring.” Additionally, there’s scope for expansion beyond sports into the wider gaming realm in the future. It’s unclear what form it will ultimately take, whether it’s a role-playing game, a first-person shooter, or something else entirely.

Sources: Techcrunch | lbcgroup