Spanish football club FC Barcelona has successfully secured a substantial investment of 120 million euros (approximately $132 million) from Libero Football Finance AG and Nipa Capital B.V. This funding injection is directed towards its innovative Web3 project, Barça Vision, media reports said.
As revealed in an announcement on August 11th, FC Barcelona has traded a 29.5% stake in Bridgeburg Invest, the parent company overseeing Barça Vision, in exchange for this substantial capital boost.
The fundamental objective of Barça Vision is to amalgamate all digital content centered around Web3 and blockchain, encompassing NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and the metaverse. These endeavors constitute a pivotal component of the club’s strategic pursuit to construct the digital Espai Barça, or Barça Space.
Libero Football Finance is a publicly listed entity in Germany that specializes in providing financial advisory services to soccer clubs. On the other hand, Nipa Capital B.V. operates as a venture capital firm headquartered in the Netherlands.
This transaction is contingent upon the approval of FC Barcelona’s shareholders and is anticipated to conclude during the fourth quarter of 2023.
Since February 2020, FC Barcelona has maintained a partnership with the Chiliz blockchain platform to introduce Ethereum-based FC Barcelona Fan Tokens (BAR) for its sports franchises. Notably, in August 2022, Chiliz made headlines by acquiring a significant 24.5% stake in FC Barcelona’s digital content creation arm, Barça Vision, for a sum of $100 million.
