Footium has announced a £450k strategic angel investment round led by the former Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur star, Dimitar Berbatov. Footium aims to become the go-to destination for football fans seeking a social, competitive, and modern football management experience - one built around community, real people, and real competition.
The announcement coincides with Footium’s hard launch, following four years of development, live testing, and a successful soft-launch with over three thousand clubs competing in month-long seasons.
With Football Manager facing its rockiest reception in years amidst FM25’s cancellation and FM26’s widespread criticism, Footium is carving out a distinctly different direction: multiplayer, social, rewarding, and competitive, designed for football fans who want the challenge of managing a club - but against real people rather than a computer.
Footium’s leagues operate in real time, with daily live matches, promotion/relegation, dynamic transfer markets, club progression, and a thriving social ecosystem where fans create content, trade players, and build rivalries. Clubs can also earn cash rewards based on their performance during each season, with rewards being funded through in-game spending.
The Bulgarian striker joins a roster of experienced gaming, sports, and tech operators who have backed Footium in this strategic round, which closed earlier this year.
Footium also announced the signing of a new Advisor - Andy Watson, CEO of Hutch Games, the creators of F1 Clash and Top Drives.
Footium’s journey began with a sold-out launch of 3,000 Footium Clubs in 2021, followed by a 2022 seed round led by BACKED VC, including well-known gaming and tech investors. Over the past three years, the studio has built the core-game alongside over a dozen community playtests, and is now running monthly seasons, each with new features and improvements.
Players from around the world have already completed tens of thousands of competitive matches and built a thriving online culture around the game.
With Berbatov joining as a strategic backer and the hard launch now live for new players, the studio believes it’s the perfect moment for the genre to evolve and a digital world of football to be built.
