NFT-based investment platform for athletes FANtium raises €2 million in angel investment to democratize funding for athletes

by James · October 11, 2022

Summary

The funding round is supported by prominent sports figures and entrepreneurs, such as One Football’s Lucas von Cranach, Sandbox COO and co-founder Sebastian Borget and tennis pro Dominic Thiem
The platform enables sports fans to invest in athletes and participate in their real financial success
Athletes gain access to a new form of financial resources and unlock emotional value by making fans part of their team

ZUG, Switzerland and BERLIN, 11 October 2022 /PRNewswire/ — NFT-based investment platform for athletes FANtium (fantium.com), today announced a private pre-seed round of EUR 2 million (USD 2 million). The financing comes from prominent web3 business angels, among them Sandbox COO & Co-Founder Sebastien BorgetSosart growth lead Brian O’HaganArgent co-founder and CEO Itamar Lesuisse and Spatial Co founder Anand Agarawala. Furthermore, the company receives support from well-known sports personalities and entrepreneurs, including Austrian tennis pro, US Open Champion Dominic Thiemand OneFootball founder Lucas von Cranach.

FANtium founding team (from left to right: Jonathan Ludwig, Debora Lasoen, Christoph Kock, Anna Dierks, Justus Garbe)

FANtium will begin to democratize athlete funding, allowing fans to invest in athletes and participate in their real financial success. Fans can invest in their season earnings as well as the career earnings of up-and-coming younger talent. Invested fans are entitled to a share of the athlete’s real income in the form of prize money and sponsorship agreements. In addition to the financial benefit, fans can unlock emotional value by becoming part of the athlete’s close community with access to unique fan benefits – connecting them to the athlete in a whole new way.

Professional athletes can tokenize a certain amount of future season’s prize money and sell these shares as NFTs to fans via FANtium’s platform. They can reinvest the upfront earnings earlier, for example by hiring a fitness trainer or physiotherapist, and reduce risks such as injuries on a seasonal basis.

Young talents can tokenize a limited share of future earnings to raise the funds they need to get to the top. It solves a major challenge many talents face across different sports: they have the talent but lack access to the money to go fully professional. Especially individual sports such as tennis, golf or racing are expensive to do early on and require significant money for travel, coaching and equipment. Access to money is crucial, even for young players, who are among the best in their age group.

“A season on the professional tennis tour is expensive. Many young players struggle a lot, especially when their parents cannot afford their career”, says Dominic Thiem, Austrian tennis pro who was among the best in his age group and later won the US Open. “Many young talents are forced to withdraw from the sport at early stages because they have trouble affording their career. Even finding a supporter or sponsor can be very difficult.”

That is what FANtium wants to change. “If you think about it, it doesn’t make sense that only corporations have access to money. There are billions of sports enthusiasts in the world who would love to invest in these athletes and be part of their journey,” says Jonathan Ludwig, co-founder and CEO of FANtium. “By connecting these talents with sports enthusiasts, we make the sport more equal because as a young athlete, your success will no longer depend on your financial background.”

Similar to music NFT marketplaces like Royal, which sell song rights as NFTs, FANtium uses NFTs as the underlying technology that enables fans to invest in athletes and receive a share of the revenue earned by the performer. The company envisions establishing athlete investments as a new asset class and then expanding into other sports rights categories.

Given the latest crypto regulations, it remains to be seen whether such NFTs will be considered securities, including the implications that will follow for both platforms and users. However, FANtium seems to be taking a new approach, launching the platform in a security-compliant manner, starting with the Switzerland.

“We believe that regulation will be good for the NFT industry in general, as it provides confidence and transparency for NFT holders,” says Ludwig. “The dynamic and fragmented regulatory environment with specific requirements in each jurisdiction will remain one of our biggest challenges in the coming years, especially as our goal is to provide frictionless access to athletes in a compliant manner.”

The company plans to launch the first athlete in Q4 of this year, leveraging the sports communities to bring early sports fans to the platform. Users can currently register for early access on the website.

FANtium was founded by a team of sports and web3 enthusiasts with extensive experience in company building and scaling. It is led by Jonathan Ludwig, who previously built and exited two startups in the loyalty space and invested early in several successful web3 startups such as Sorare. The founding team brings combined previous experience from BCG and Rocket Internet, among others.