Aln Misrahi played soccer in Mexico's third division. While he didn't make it to the big leagues, his new company Draftea aims to win over the 350 million sports fans in Latin America.
Draftea, which calls itself the first daily fantasy sports company in Spanish-speaking Latin America, emerged from stealth mode today after a $13.2 million fundraise led by Kaszek with participation from Sequoia, Bullpen, and former CEO of sports-betting giant FanDuel. The board at Draftea is chaired by Eccles.
Half a year after announcing plans to double down on opportunities in Latin America, the venture capital firm has invested in a company in Mexico.
Sports fans pay a fee to draft a lineup of players and compete to win cash prizes. The platform will launch in the first quarter of this year. It will first host Mexican fantasy soccer matches, but the company will eventually add offerings until it hosts fantasy games for every single sport in the world.
There are various screens on the app. The image is called Draftea.
When you think of a region where soccer is almost a religion, where people get together for activities that are related to sports, where stadiums are full, where people enjoy sports as a family tradition, and where people are in several WhatsApp groups talking about sports and fantasy, you get the idea.
While sports betting platforms like Costa Rica's Betcris are popular in the region, Draftea is a much more social platform. It differentiates itself by offering daily games and interactions, which is different to the less-frequent games hosted by seasonal fantasy platforms.
The core founding team includes a former product head at Mexico's largest neobank, a former head of engineering at Vercel, and a former head of engineering at Rappi. Draftea has 34 employees in total today and plans to double in size over the next couple months across all key areas, according to Jamie Misrahi.
Aln Misrahi is the founder and CEO of Draftea.
This year is expected to be the biggest live sports event in the world, with the World Cup taking place in November.
By then, we want to have an amazing product, have launched in many countries in Latin America, and have hundreds, if not thousands, of users engaged with our platform.
The two people met at the school where the man completed his masters degree last year. In an email, Buhler said that he was the one who led the investment in Draftea because of his passion for sports and experience as a professional soccer player.
Buhler wrote that it all comes down to customer love. Draftea is a community for sports fans in LatAm where they can become the main characters in their favorite games. We believe that Aln and team will be a hit in Mexico and will expand to other countries in time for the World Cup.
