Swedish company GOALS has raised $20m in Series A funding to develop its soccer video game as seen on esportzInsider. The funding round was led by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, with participation from VC specialists Northzone, Moonfire and Cassius, as well as several high-profile angel investors.
With the recent announcement of GOALS securing $20 million in Series A funding, the Swedish company is set to bring a new soccer video game to the market. GOALS, which was created in 2021 by Andreas Thorstensson, a former Counter-Strike world champion and the founder of esports team SK Gaming, is aimed at esports competition and hopes to revolutionize the football genre.
The funding round was led by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, and it also saw participation from other VC specialists such as Northzone, Moonfire, and Cassius. The company attracted a number of high-profile angel investors, including senior vice-president for product at Discord, Peter Sellis, founder and CEO of Statespace/Aimlabs, Wayne Mackey, midfielder for LA Galaxy, Riqui Puig, and center-back for Tottenham Hotspur on loan from Barcelona, Clement Langlet.
GOALS has already raised a total of $39 million with this latest investment. The company aims to fast-track production and bring a new option to the table, potentially “give football the game it deserves.” The company plans to focus on fun, fast, and fluid gameplay over hyperrealism, while offering casual and highly competitive play, user-controlled characters, and increasing the social and competitive aspect of football games.
The GOALS team currently has around 50 developers, including those from recognizable franchises in gaming such as FIFA and Madden, as well as leading companies such as Activision and Ubisoft. The latest tranche of funding will be used to expand the company’s staff to 75 people over the coming years, prioritizing key roles in engineering.
Thorstensson, who stepped back from competitive soccer gaming due to his frustration over a perceived lack of innovation, said, “GOALS was born out of our passion for football, our passion for video games, and our opinion that football video games have grown stale.” He believes that a football game done right should be the world’s biggest video game, and GOALS is focused on making sure it meets the needs of every fan, regardless of what they are looking for, whether it’s casual or highly competitive play, the hardware they play on, or where they live.
GOALS is currently in the pre-alpha stage, but Thorstensson and his team have committed to sharing progress in an open and transparent way. Interested parties can keep up to date by joining GOALS’ Discord, following development on Twitter and YouTube, and even signing up for the chance to be an early playtester on the GOALS website. The company plans to offer cross play between consoles and PC, plus optimizations that allow the game to run on older consoles and lower-spec PC hardware.
With the recent investment, GOALS is poised to make a mark in the football video game market. With its focus on fun, fast, and fluid gameplay, the company hopes to give football the game it deserves. The company’s commitment to transparency and open communication with its community bodes well for the future of the project. It remains to be seen how successful the company will be, but with the backing of high-profile investors, GOALS is certainly one to watch in the coming years.
