FC Barcelona receives $132M investment to expand web3 project
Spanish soccer powerhouse FC Barcelona has taken another giant stride into the world of digital finance and art. The club announced on Aug. 11 that it secured a hefty investment of $132 million for its blockchain and NFT-focused initiative, Barça Vision.
Expanding Barça Vision
The investment was made jointly by Libero Football Finance AG, a German-based financial consultancy for soccer clubs, and Nipa Capital B.V., a venture capital outfit based in the Netherlands.
In exchange for the capital injection, FC Barcelona parted with a 29.5% stake in Bridgeburg Invest, the umbrella holding entity for Barça Vision.
According to the club’s developers, “Barça Vision is the Club’s initiative to integrate all digital content around Web3 and blockchain including NFTs and metaverse.” They added that this initiative underscores the club’s strategy to shape the digital ‘Espai Barça’.
It’s essential to note that this transaction still awaits the nod of approval from FC Barcelona shareholders. If all goes as planned, the deal will be finalized in the last quarter of 2023.
Not the first web3 adventure for Barcelona
But this isn’t FC Barcelona’s maiden voyage into the realm of blockchain. Since February 2020, the club has been collaborating with Chiliz blockchain to churn out Ethereum-powered FC Barcelona Fan Tokens (BAR) to boost fan engagement.
Only a year ago, in August 2022, Chiliz decided to further deepen ties with Barça by buying a 24.5% stake in Barça Vision. The price? A whopping $100 million.
In May of this year, they rolled out their debut NFT collection in partnership with Plastiks. Named “Unleash Your Passion,” this collection, comprised of 3,000 animal-inspired NFTs priced at $30 apiece, aims to assist in “removing 35,000,000 kilograms of plastic from our planet.”
But the digital milestones didn’t end there. FC Barcelona’s very first NFT, “Masterpiece #1 In A Way”, found a buyer at Sotheby’s New York auction in July 2022, fetching a whopping $693,000. This was soon followed by another collectible, “Masterpiece #2 – Empowerment”, which was snapped up on OpenSea in June 2023 for $300,231.
