Brazilian fantasy game startup receives investment of R$ 180 million

They work with football, they got a millionaire contribution in Serie A and have a long-term goal to reach Serie D, a stage in which they can raise even more money for their project.

It seems strange if we think, for example, of the divisions of the Brazilian Championship, but in the world of startups, investment rounds move more money as one advances to Series B, C, D and E. To reach these stages, however, you must already have a consolidated product and a good customer base.

Earlier this year, startup Rei do Pitaco, a fantasy game platform in which the user builds his virtual team and competes for prizes (similar to Cartola FC), received a contribution of R$ 180 million, from international funds, in a of these Serie A trading rounds.

This is the largest investment received by a sportstech in Brazil.

With another R$ 28 million raised last year, the company from Paraíba Mateus Dantas and Kiko Augusto, which currently has 1.5 million registered customers, plans to reinvest the amount raised in improving the product and, consequently, in conquering new players for the platform.

The company currently has 75 employees. According to the duo, the millionaire contribution received opened more than 20 new vacancies to expand the team.

“One thing we talk a lot about when we are going to raise these investments, especially now that almost all of our investors are from abroad [do país], it’s about how deficient the Brazilian sports market is in terms of technology”, says Kiko, one of the founders of Rei do Pitaco.

“We come from digital, we were born in technology, we were raised in this environment. And we want to bring technology to sports. In Brazil, people are creating fintech, new banking, or something related to health, healthtech, but the sports part keep going.”

Mateus and Kiko met in 2015. The former was at the time doing an internship at Google, in Warsaw, and the latter lived in England, where he participated in the Science without Borders program. They were introduced by a mutual friend, who worked at Facebook and is now a companion of the two at the startup.

With the idea of ​​creating a fantasy game application in which users could assemble virtual teams with athletes from the world’s top teams, they founded the platform in 2019, but with a product, according to them, far from ideal.

“I already knew this fantasy game model, which has cash prizes and in which you play round by round. In my mind, it was obvious that it would work in Brazil, a matter of time before someone made it work. A huge audience, people passionate about football… It was an account that, in my head, closed”, says Mateus.

“In a conversation via WhatsApp, we decided to make [o Rei do Pitaco]. Three days later, we launched the product, and it didn’t work. It was obvious: a product released in three days was not going to work. But we were both in love with the idea. In 2019, we decided to drop everything. I left England and returned to Brazil, Kiko dropped out of university, and we moved to São Paulo. Since then, Rei do Pitaco has been on a growth trajectory.”

The game resembles the formula of Cartola FC, Grupo Globo’s fantasy game in the Brazilian Championship, but differs, among other factors, by the possibility for users to assemble teams from international leagues. To arrive at the product they developed, the creators say they were inspired by three companies in the field: Draft Kings and FanDuel, from the United States, and Dream Eleven, from India.

The statistical basis used to define player and team scores is provided by Footstats.

When a customer asks, for example, why an assist has not been counted for an athlete from his team or says that a goal recorded as an own goal should have been credited to his striker, Rei do Pitaco makes an analysis, which is submitted to Footstats. If they consider that the statistic was in fact wrong, they review the information and then the user’s points.

At the beginning of 2022, one of the novelties of Rei do Pitaco is the partnership signed with the FPF (Paulista Football Federation) so that the platform is the official fantasy of the Paulista Championship.

“We still need to improve the product a lot. Make it work faster, make the experience more straightforward in the app, with fewer glitches. And bring new features that we know our audience will like. New ways to play, more competitions, more awards high. These are the main improvements that we want”, completes Mateus.