Chiliz, a blockchain platform for sports and entertainment, has launched a $50 million incubator and accelerator.
Chiliz Labs, supported by Jump Crypto, will back early-stage projects on the Layer 1 Chiliz blockchain and Socios.com partner network.
Socios.com is used by the likes of FC Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester City for their fan tokens. Its ecosystem and audience now totals more than 170 partners across the globe and more than 1.8m wallets. Last year, Chiliz announced a $100 million investment in Barcelona’s digital content creation and distribution hub Barça Digital Entertainment to spearhead the club’s Web3 strategy.
Chiliz recently announced LiveLike and FanFest as the first companies committed to building on the new chain – which began operating less than a month ago – and will publicly announce 8–10 additional enterprise level projects soon.
This will include NFT ticketing pilots, third-party athlete-focused fan tokens and Web3 infrastructure partners building for sports and entertainment.
“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 maximise fan engagement globally,” said Kanav Kariya, president of Jump Crypto.
“Chiliz 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.”
Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz and Socios.com, said: “At Chiliz, we’re harnessing blockchain technology to build communities where sports teams can have a direct relationship and value exchange with their 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.
“Chiliz Labs is a central pillar of this strategy.”
Chiliz, which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary, saw its workforce grow by over 70% in 2022, with its 300+ strong employees spread across nine locations around the world.