An ambitious London-based firm looking to create a football multi-club network and sell bonds on the London Stock Exchange has smashed its first fundraising goal.
The Football Factory raised over £100,000 at an £8m pre-money valuation this week ahead of a Series A round and a bond sell-off – in one or both of London and Dubai – later this year.
The firm, co-founded by Edoardo Giacone – and backed by investors linked to top-tier European football and the International Olympic Committee – has “already secured” a club near Porto, Portugal, according to its investment page on fund raise site Republic.
A new way to football?
After the raise – which will remain capped at £100,000 – closes in two or three weeks, Giacone told City AM, “we [will] start with a Series A, followed by either a Series B or the issue of a bond placed in London and in Dubai”.
“The Football Factory is building what we believe can become a completely new model for football,” he added. “The easiest way to explain it is this: we are not simply acquiring or building football clubs; we are building brand-new football-anchored ecosystems.
“And we do that by bringing together three things that have traditionally been developed separately, which are football, real estate, and technology.
“We are not treating football as a sport. We are not creating real estate bolted onto football, we are creating a destination.”
Floating in London?
These projects, which the Football Factory hopes form part of a multi-club model that could one day include an English team, will feature a football arena and club and surrounded by a mix of business, technological and educational real estate – leveraging the increasing desire from mostly US investors of sporting assets which are also PropCos.
The organisations will run with a so-called Football Citadel Operating System, a piece of IT that has been developed to streamline the running of the projects, and Giacone described AI as the blood of the system.
“And together with us,” he concluded, “we have arguably one of the most important AI labs in Italy, which is already working with the Italian state and with the Vatican State.”
The Football Factory’s clubs are likely to be of a larger footprint as the organisation buys its second, third and fourth assets – with the firm planning an exit with all four projects bundled as one.
“Football clubs live on results and value never lasts,” the Republic pitch read. “Meanwhile real estate remains the most resilient category. In this gap, lies an opportunity
“Powered by AI. Enabled by Real Estate. Built Around Football. A new asset-class.”