Chiliz, a global leader in blockchain technology for Web3 sports and entertainment, has announced the launch of Chiliz Labs, a $50 million incubator and accelerator program backed by Jump Crypto. Chiliz Labs will support innovative early-stage blockchain projects that leverage the Chiliz blockchain for sports and entertainment, as well as the Socios.com partner network, to help them succeed. The aim is to create an ecosystem for entrepreneurs and developers focused on creating long-lasting, utility-oriented projects, and Chiliz Labs will soon announce its first partners.
LiveLike and FanFest are the first companies committed to building on the new chain, and 8-10 additional enterprise-level projects will be announced soon. These include NFT ticketing pilots, third-party athlete-focused Fan Tokens, and Web3 infrastructure partners building for sports and entertainment.
Kanav Kariya, President of Jump Crypto, praised Chiliz for its unique solution to the problem of scaling sports brands and maximizing global fan engagement sustainably and affordably. Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chiliz and Socios.com, emphasized that building an ecosystem of fan experiences and transactions through Fan Tokens is central to Chiliz’s vision.
Chiliz is known for creating Fan Tokens and the Socios.com fan engagement and rewards app, with more than 170 partners across the globe and over 1.8 million wallets. The company recently launched Gameused.com, an end-to-end memorabilia authentication service for sports and entertainment. It also made a $100 million investment in FC Barcelona’s digital content creation and distribution hub Barça Digital Entertainment to spearhead the club’s Web3 strategy.
Chiliz’s new blockchain, which will use $CHZ as the network enabler, is set to be publicly available soon. This layer-1 blockchain for sports and entertainment will enable leading brands to mint NFTs and Fan Tokens, build DeFi products and Play2Earn games, and create event, loyalty, and merchandising programs.
