Fanatics is selling its stake in NFT startup Candy Digital to an investor group led by Galaxy Digital, which co-founded Candy along with Fanatics and Gary Vaynerchuk in early 2021. The news was first reported by CNBC, citing a Fanatics company email.
Update: Later in the day, Candy announced a Series A1 funding of an undisclosed amount. A Candy Digital spokesperson confirmed the funding includes a buyout of most of Fanatics’ stake. The round was led by ConsenSys Mesh and Galaxy, with ConsenSys and 10T Holdings joining the round. Galaxy founder Michael Novogratz and ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin are former roommates at Princeton. Candy uses the Palm network Ethereum sidechain. Palm was co-founded by Joe Lubin and former ConsenSys staffer Daniel Heyman. ConsenSys was interested in sports NFTs and reportedly landed a deal for Premier League football NFTs, only to attempt to renegotiate it.
In October 2021, Candy raised $100 million in a deal valuing it at $1.5 billion, co-led by Insight Partners and Softbank Vision Fund 2, with participation from Peyton Manning and Connect Ventures, the joint venture between sports agency CAA and New Enterprise Ventures. Notably, Softbank also participated in a $700 million funding round for Fanatics in December 2022 that valued the company at $31 billion.
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