GOALS, an upcoming football video game currently in development, has announced a new funding round totalling $20m (£16.1m). The Series A round was led by Seven Seven Six.
The funding will be used to ‘fast track’ the production of the game, according to the studio, as well as help scale its team of 50 to at least 75 people over the next few years.
GOALS is an upcoming multiplayer football simulation game that aims to compete with the likes of FIFA and eFootball.
Started in 2021 by SK Gaming co-founder Andreas Thorstensson, the GOALS project notably aims to create a free to play ‘esports ready’ game. The game’s developers previously announced a P2E (play to earn) system with NFT rewards, but further details have not been revealed.
The financing round was led by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six. along with VC companies Northzone, Moonfire and Cassius.
This round also saw some notable new investors join the GOALS team, with Discord SVP Peter Sellis and Statespace Founder Wayne Mackey joined by footballers Riqui Puig of LA Galaxy and Clement Langlet of Tottenham.
The investment brings the total money raised to $39m (£31.4m), after a seed funding round of $15m (£11.4m) was announced in April 2022.
The game still has no release date and is in a pre-alpha state, but the team did share several in-game videos showcasing mechanics, as well as a trailer.
Alexis Ohanian, Founder of Seven Seven Six, commented: “The studio is on a mission to bring a fun football game to the masses and to eliminate any barriers or inequities that may exist for players, no matter where they live or what hardware they’re running. It’s been amazing to not only see the progress GOALS has made so far, but to also play it for ourselves.”
