A Swedish blockchain gaming startup, GOALS, has received $15 million in seed funding

GOALS, a Swedish blockchain game company, has acquired $15 million in early capital to expand its product to non-crypto native gamers. Northzone led the investment round, which included previous investors Cherry Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, Banana Capital, and new investors Not Boring Capital and Cassius.

.@PlayGOALS, a new multiplayer football P2E game in development, has secured $15m in seed funding.

The round was led by Northzone, with previous investors Cherry Ventures, Moonfire Ventures and Banana Capital also taking part in the funding. https://t.co/9RMJzwUQgZ pic.twitter.com/v81Ec8kDka

— Esports Insider (@esportsinsider) April 5, 2022

GOALS attracted several high-profile angel investors, including Sorare’s Chief Executive Officer Nicolas Julia, FC Barcelona star Gerard Pique, and Axie Infinity’s Chief Operating Officer Aleksander Larsen, thanks to its remarkable business concept. The early funding is the most visible way for the Stockholm-based firm to begin its significant publicity as it strives to establish its place in the developing Web3.0 world.

“We were fortunate that investors reached out to us before we were officially fundraising, so we were able to pick the ones we thought were the greatest fit for GOALS,” said Andreas Thorstensson, co-founder and CEO. “I could see that gamers deserved something new after playing most football games on the market and monitoring the esports sector for a long period.” GOALS is a blockchain football game that focuses on gameplay. Players may now own their in-game stuff instead of renting them in this free-to-play, cross-play, multiplayer-focused, and esports-ready game.”

Everything you need to know about @PlayGOALS Game Design Reveal! https://t.co/ZMW0HmWHjM

— Kurt (@Kurt0411Fifa) April 5, 2022

GOALS is a blockchain game based on the Play-to-Own principle. It allows gamers to take ownership of their in-game assets, including players, clubs, and skins. These in-game assets will be kept on the blockchain as Non-Fungible Tokens, based on the capabilities of the underlying infrastructure (NFTs). GOALS is a free-to-play game, but the business plan is to take a cut of every NFT transaction in the connected marketplace.

Also, read – Blockchain Firm Paxos Raises $300 million

“With FIFA, you only own the skins for a certain time,” Thorstensson, the former founder of e-sports company SK Gaming and a partner at EQT Ventures, noted. “You can’t sell them, you can’t control them, and you don’t have transparency — blockchain is the ideal solution to all of these problems.”

GOALS Blockchain Game Plans to Make Your Dream Come True

The goal is to get every conventional player to see what GOALS has to offer, and with the new cash, the Swedish business will be able to achieve just that. With the increased funding, GOALS will be able to hire an extra 30 game developers for its technical team.

The use of the cash will also have to translate to choosing the best blockchain technology to power the anticipated traffic that the game is expected to create, with each player owning an average of 15 players, according to the startup. Aside from the previously mentioned Polygon, StarkWare, and Solana, the recently exposed Ronin Network has also been considered to power the platform.

While Thorstensson did not rule out the Ronin Bridge’s adoption, he did say that to implement the protocol that enables Axie Infinity. Security would have to be improved.

“First and foremost, bridges are a security issue,” he concedes, stressing that the attack will likely encourage more attention to bridge security. “We just need to make sure the chain is very decentralized and that there are enough nodes and validators [to assure majority control] from a security aspect.”