Sports NFT service Candy Digital, owned by sports e-commerce company Fanatics, raises a $100M Series A at a $1.5B valuation from Vision Fund 2 and others
- Fanatics said it raised $100 million for its NFT company Candy Digital as it looks to pivot outside of sports merchandising.
Context & Ripple Effects
This round extends a years-long SoftBank–Fanatics relationship: Vision Fund led Fanatics' $1B raise at a $4.5B valuation back in 2017, and Vision Fund 2 now leads a $100M bet on the company's NFT arm at a $1.5B valuation. For Fanatics, the raise funds a deliberate pivot beyond sports merchandising into digital collectibles.
What makes the story worth tracking is how the bet ages: within roughly a year, Candy Digital lays off up to half its staff per a report of cuts to its ~100-person team, and by early 2023 Fanatics exits entirely, selling its 60% stake to an investor group led by Galaxy Digital.
First-order effects
- Candy Digital banks $100M at a $1.5B valuation, giving Fanatics capital to push outside sports merchandising while deepening its ties with SoftBank's Vision Fund 2.
Second-order effects
- As the sports-NFT market cools, Candy Digital cuts up to half of its roughly 100-person staff — the same funders now face Vision Fund 2's broader markdowns, including a reported $2.1B quarterly loss and a portfolio worth 19% less than the $49B invested.
Third-order effects
- Fanatics refocuses on its core commerce business, ceding control of Candy Digital to Galaxy Digital-led buyers while league investors — the NFL and MLB among them — anchor its own $27B valuation round; peak-cycle corporate NFT ventures revert to specialist owners.
The trend: SoftBank's 2021-vintage flagship bets are unwinding, with high-valuation NFT and crypto-adjacent startups like Candy Digital marked down, cut back, or sold off as the capital cycle turns.