Hello, and welcome to today's edition of Founders International, your daily newsletter where we cover the stories, trends, and companies in tech and startups from outside of the US.

Here's what we have in store for you today:1. French startup Sorare secures the bag2. Caura wants to make owning your vehicle just a little bit easier3. Funding in India drops it like its hot

Read time: 2 minutes 36 seconds

P.S.

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Sorare secures big deal with Premier League

Sorare, a French startup for digital sports cards, just secured a HUGE deal by becoming the licensed partner of the Premier League (soccer fútbol league).

Why is this yuge? Well, this gives Sorare the sole rights to create digital trading cards for the Premier League, and that gives them the goal of all startups, and the very thing that makes VCs knees become weak: distribution.

Now, no matter who wants the NFT trading card of their favorite player in the Premier League, Sorare is the only place for potential customers to go to, and collect all of the potential revenue.

And the premier league is one of the most watched sports leagues in the world. In terms of total watchers, the EPL is reported to have 3 billion watchers around the world.

2 reasons to further support why this deal is crazy:

1. TinyCo - Founded by Suli Ali, this video game studio made games such as the Family Guy game, Marvel Game, and many others by securing licensing deals with the companies behind those popular shows. They sold for over $100 million in 2016

2. Sports becoming popular again - the sports card industry which was once seen as being for young kids, has had a resurgence with some cards being sold for tens of millions of dollars

The even crazier part? Sorare already has similar deals with the NBA, MLB, and many other individual soccer teams around the world.

Sorare may not be so-rare, anymore.

Caura fills up their tank with £4 million

Caura, a UK company trying to take the headache out of all the administrative parts of owning a vehicle, just raised £4 million to extend their road trip.

Look, we've all been there. You're driving your car and you need to be somewhere quick, but traffic is stopped, you're just inching forward, and then you look to your left and see the savior, the carpool lane. But, you're the only one in the car, and you know if you do it you'll have to pay that stupid fee, but you end up thinking, eff it, I'm going. 

Actually, I have no idea what that's like. I work from home, so....

You get my point, you have a stupid fee to pay when you get that notice in the mail you weren't actually carpooling, and then you finally get into the city you have to dig for some change to put in your parking meter, and then at last you get home and have one more stupid fee to cap off the night, insurance.

Well, Caura is looking to change that. They are putting all those fees into one place and making it easier than ever to pay for tolls, city charges, insurance, and much more all in one app.

While they are focused on city fees and other related charges at the moment, their goal is to eventually get into maintenances for cars as well, which means I can finally stop looking foolish when the mechanic tells me I have something else I need to do.

No sir, I don't care that my air filter looks like it has been through a coal factory, my app is telling me I have another 3 months before I need to do change that out.

India startup funding drops 49% in 2022

Continuing with a theme we are seeing in many other parts of the world, startups in in India's national capital region of Delhi saw a large drop in total funding.

Going from a reported $10.2 billion in 2021 to just $5.2 billion in 2022, India is following much of the rest of the world in the trend that startup funding dropped drastically in the last year, and that theme could continue into 2023.

Even startups based in Bengaluru, the startup hub of India, saw a drop in funding year over year, although it still remains at the top as the place to be if you are looking at starting a new company.

Some other key takeaways:

• Fintech still remains the top industry funded in the region

• The e-commerce sector did 310 deals for $4 billion in funding

• The average size of rounds was $16 million

And there is still hope. Delhi should not be counted out for many factors such as proximity to educational institutes, lower costs for commercial real estate, and better infrastructure overall when comparing to Bengaluru.

The Delhi government also has an initiative to subsidize some basic costs such as internet and rent for office space. Also, the startups could also be helped to pay the salaries of their staff if need be.

Does that include the cost of food? I hear the Delhi is a great place for some sandwiches..

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💯 Freaking sick dude🤷‍♂️ Meh, do better next time😑 Bruh, I might unsubscribe after reading that