Nicolas Julia is at the origin of the French unicorn which broke all records and shook the world of French Tech, Sorare. His startup notably made the news by signing the largest fundraising in history, in France. Focus on his studies, his professional and entrepreneurial journey.
In September 2021, the French Tech universe recorded the largest fundraising in its entire history, a record of 680 million dollars, or approximately 580 million euros. Sorare was then valued at $4.3 billion. Behind this new digital giant hides an inspiring entrepreneur who knew how to seize the right opportunities at the right time. This is Nicolas Julia, 35 years old, born in Perpignan. He grew up in Ille-sur-Têt where his whole family still lives.
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The academic and professional career of Nicolas Julia
Nicolas Julia did a preparatory class at the Lycée Saliège, on the economic track, in 2004. Following this, he joined emlyon business schoolwhere he completed an MSc in Management. He also did an academic exchange at Hanken School of Economics in 2009.
Once he graduated in 2010, he joined the consulting firm Eurogroup Consulting Groupan independent European strategy and organization consulting firm with 1,000 consultants across 16 countries. The group moved to France in 1982. Nicolas Julia started as an intern, then moved to junior consultant in 2011. Given that career development in the consulting field is rapid, a year later, Nicolas Julia became senior consultant, then senior supervisor in 2014.
In 2015, he co-founded Javanessa company that provides AI-powered solutions to public and private organizations in France and Europe to maximize the value and productivity of these businesses. The particularity of the startup? She believes in ethical and responsible AI, serving citizens. The entire team campaigns for the technological sovereignty of public and private companies operating in Europe.
In 2016, Nicolas Julia embarked on a new adventure and joined Stratumn, a solution designed for the Financial Departments of Medium and Large Companies, as VP Operation. The company raised 8 million euros in June 2017 from Nasdaq Ventures, Open CNP, Cathay, Otium Venture and Digital Currency Group. During the two and a half years spent at Stratumn, Nicolas Julia had the opportunity to discover blockchain applications in depth, which would later help him in the creation of Sorare.
The Sorare adventure begins for Nicolas Julia
After a few years in consulting, the pressing desire to launch into entrepreneurship arose for Nicolas Julia. He then created a startup accelerator, called La Javaness in 2015. He then saw the potential that cryptocurrency represented and launched into entrepreneurship by creating his own startup specialized in blockchain, Sorare.
When the first NFT (non-fungible token or non-fungible tokens), these digital and secure certificates of ownership which allow a digital object to be authenticated, have seen the light of day, Nicolas Julia sees the potential that this revolutionary technology presents. He explains to Forbes the origin of his idea combining football and digital: “ With my partner Adrien, we very quickly became convinced that the characteristics specific to the technology of “ NFT », in the same way as digital scarcity or the question of traceability, would lead to a technological change which would have the same impact on our lives as the arrival of the Internet or the smartphone. THE NFT will reinvent certain industries and change the way we own digital goods. »
Nicolas Julia continues: “We started from the idea that man has always loved collecting and that NFT offer new applications on the Web. And, since we are football enthusiasts, we also thought about how to connect our passion to this technology, before creating immediate use value, beyond just the collection. »
The emlyon graduate is passionate about sport. Linking your startup to sport therefore seemed obvious. Nicolas Julia then launched Sorare, a fantasy football game in which virtual players, represented by cards in NFT format, can play matches. Users can thus appropriate new technologies. Nicolas Julia explains to Forbes the reasons which pushed him to create this project: “ We created Sorare to allow football fans to experience their passion even more intensely. Every day, their skills will be useful to them to select the 5 players from their digital card portfolio who will perform the best on courts around the world. »
The unicorn is already profitable and is valued today at $4.3 billion. Nicolas Julia’s ambitions are clear: become the world leader in entertainment, by continuing to create bridges between digital and physical worlds and by expanding to other sports.
The concept of Sorare
Sorare is a startup that has developed in the world of sport and NFTs, these non-fungible token or non-fungible tokens. To summarize roughly, it’s a Fantasy Football platform on which people buy players and resell them completely virtually, a bit like Panini cards, but web version.
To be able to use the image of the players, the founders of Sorare of course approached the clubs. Thus, 180 franchises are now used by the startup which pays a commission on sales to the different clubs.
The concept of Sorare is a virtual game which consists of collecting electronic cards of football players. Users can buy football player cards, build teams and play with them, but also invest in these NFTs and resell them depending on their rarity. To guarantee the authenticity of each card, the startup decided to use blockchain Ethereum. We then talk about NFT (Non-Fungible Token) or non-convertible tokens.
Nicolas Julia and the business of NFTs
With Sorare, Nicolas Julia launched into the NFT business. But what are NFTs? An NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is a type of digital token that represents unique, non-interchangeable property. NFTs are often used for the sale and purchase of digital goods such as images, videos, music, artwork and even video games.
NFTs are created and stored using the blockchain, which gives them a certain immutability and proof of ownership. This means that NFTs cannot be modified or replaced with another copy, making them unique and rare goods.
NFTs have gained popularity in recent years due to their ability to uniquely represent digital goods and make them easier to sell and buy online. They are often used in digital art and online media, but they can also be used to represent physical objects such as artwork or collectibles.
Nicolas Julia reveals Sorare’s next steps
During an interview with ForbesNicolas Julia revealed the next major steps awaiting Sorare. “ The funds raised will allow us to accelerate our development around four axes. » This would be summarized as:
- Sign new partnerships exclusive with the world’s major football leagues and branch out into new sports. Tennis could be one of these next sports. Indeed, the players are quite popular and the arrival of Serena Williams on the board could help accelerate this subject.
- Recruit the best talents around the world.
- Improve the game, in particular by creating a mobile application as well as the first marketing campaigns.
- Have an impact via several levers: by investing in the community that has been built around Sorare (the cards being NFTthey can be used in other games and in other ecosystems), by promoting the practice of sport, by helping entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds and encouraging the representation of women in sport, particularly women’s football.
