Berlin. Frankfurt The Berlin soccer fan app One Football is exchanging its boss in the midst of a crisis. Founder Lucas von Cranach is leaving the company after 15 years and handing over management to the previous co-boss Patrick Fischer. It was “time to move on,” Cranach explained on the LinkedIn careers platform at the weekend. As an investor, however, he wants to stay on board.
According to people familiar with the company and investors, Cranach was urged to take this step to clear the way for a necessary restructuring and haircut. There was no information about Cranach’s departure on the company’s website. A spokeswoman confirmed the change at the top of the company on Monday, but did not want to comment on further details. Cranach did not give any reasons for the withdrawal either.
According to people familiar with the situation, One Football is said to be in talks with football leagues and clubs about a deferral of outstanding claims. One Football had acquired media rights for broadcasting football games, for example, but had not paid in full.
One Football has already cut staff twice
The DFL alone is said to be about 60 million euros that One Football would have to pay for international media rights. Other leagues and top clubs should also have high outstanding accounts. One Football declined to comment. The DFL declined to comment.
The company is in a difficult time. In order to cut costs, it has already cut jobs twice – last December and in March. In total, more than 200 employees had to leave the company. As of March, One Football still had 320 employees.
Cranach’s departure is not the first change this year: the former Puma boss Franz Koch, who was responsible for the operational business for several years, left in February.
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In view of the acute financing crisis for start-ups, One Football will find it difficult to attract new investors. The start-up’s network of investors is complex. Media rights financiers received shares in the company in numerous deals. According to One Football, football clubs such as Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have long been shareholders.
The DFB is also involved. In 2021, the sports association announced: “We want to get closer to the fans and address them more specifically.” The investors also include venture capitalists Lakestar and Earlybird. Both financiers did not want to comment on the changes at the top of the company.
The last time there was money was in April 2022
The company last raised money in April 2022. At that time, $300 million was raised. In this financing round, One Football also became the so-called unicorn, i.e. a company valued at more than one billion dollars. Among others, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, DAH and RIT Capital Partners were involved.
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Cranach wanted to use the capital to expand and expand the streaming offering. Among other things, so-called “Non-Fungible Tokens” (NFTs) – a kind of proof of ownership for digital objects – were announced in cooperation with Bundesliga organizer DFL.
According to One Football, it now has more than 150 million monthly active users who find out about scores and statistics, read football news or watch video clips. The company can access content from more than 150 clubs and leagues. In the meantime, hundreds of millions of posts have been made in 16 languages. One Football has also entered into a cooperation with the sports streaming service Dazn.
Cranach has always advertised that One Football is aimed directly at the fans and offers them new opportunities to experience the world’s most popular ball sport through the media. To date, the company has not answered questions about how well this user interest can be used to earn money.
The descendant of the famous Renaissance painter is himself a fan of 1. FC Köln. When he was young, he watched every game his club played in the stadium. Because he didn’t like football sites on the Internet, he founded the predecessor company to One Football in 2008, it was called “iLiga”. The first sponsor for the sports portal came from Bochum, so the business graduate first moved to the Ruhr area. Offices there were free. Shortly thereafter, Cranach moved to Berlin.
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