Quick take:
- Chiliz has launched a $50 million incubator fund Chiliz Labs.
- The fund is backed by web3-focused investment company Jump Crypto.
- It will invest, support, and empower early-stage blockchain projects focused on growing the web3 sports industry.
Chiliz has launched a $50 million incubator fund, Chiliz Labs backed by Jump Crypto. The leading web3 sports and entertainment company said the fund will invest, support and empower blockchain projects focused on growing the web3 sports industry.
The fund is targeting developers, entrepreneurs, and communities looking to build on the new Chiliz blockchain for sports and entertainment and the Socios.com partner network.
The incubator program will provide strategic guidance and funding to help projects establish a clear path to success.
Chiliz’s campaign in the web3 sports and entertainment market is spearheaded by its fan token platform Socios.com, which has sealed multiple partnerships with athletes and sports brands to develop products that they can use to create deeper relationships with their fans.
The new chain will carry the company’s vision of building an ecosystem for entrepreneurs and developers focused on creating long-lasting, utility-oriented projects.
Chiliz has already unveiled LiveLike and FanFest as the first companies set to build on the new chain and will soon announce 8-10 more mega projects soon, including “NFT ticketing pilots, third-party athlete-focused Fan Tokens and Web3 infrastructure partners building for sports and entertainment,” the company wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.
Commenting on the announcement, Kanav Kariya, President of Jump Crypto, said: “Chiliz has developed a unique solution to one of the most salient problems that sports teams and leagues face, which is how to sustainably and affordably scale their brands and maximize fan engagement globally. [It] is changing the way we think about what it means to be a fan of a sports team, and we are extremely excited to support Chiliz Labs to leverage Web3 technology to bring teams and their fans closer together.”
Jump Crypto is well-positioned to offer blockchain and crypto expertise to the Sports and entertainment industries, which Kariya hopes to achieve through various community events like hackathons.
On the other hand, Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz and Socios.com highlighted the platform’s ability to harness blockchain technology to build communities where sports teams can have a direct relationship and value exchange with fans.
“Developers choosing the Chiliz Chain to build their new innovative projects is central to our vision, allowing us to build an ecosystem of fan experiences and transactions where Fan Tokens provide a ‘digital key’ which can work across any products or experiences built on our infrastructure,” added Dreyfus.
Chiliz has partnered with some of the world’s biggest sports teams including a $100 million investment in FC Barcelona announced last August. In December, it launched Gameused.com, a new, end-to-end memorabilia authentication service for sports and entertainment, which provides storage for digital assets, NFC and NFT authentication and token redemption and resale.
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