While they were working in Angola for the family business, Miquel Barti and Òscar Bosch planned what they would do when they returned to Barcelona. The brothers-in-law found the answer in their love of football. It was from witnessing how a child showed another a figure of Messi, while the other said: “Wow! How cool… Is it Xavi?” The expression of surprise and disbelief of the boy who owns the figure gave them the idea to dedicate themselves to marketing figures of more realistic soccer players.
In 2017, they launched their first dolls under the Banbotoys brand (Ba de Barti; the n of and in English; and Bo de Bosch). “We reached an agreement with Fútbol Club Barcelona. We sold through the official stores of the clubs on our website. The toys were successful, but we saw that we needed to get licenses from other clubs to make it profitable”, recalls Miquel Barti.
The acquisition of more licenses also meant more investment. In September 2021, two new partners entered the company, who contributed 200,000 euros. "With this money we got the licenses for Real Betis Balompié, Valencia Club de Fútbol and a team from Mexico," he explains in an entrepreneurial way. In October of this year they closed an investment round, worth 400,000 euros, to reach agreements with five Premier League clubs (Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea Football Club, Tottenham and Arsenal) and three from the Mexican league. , country where they have the licenses of América Club, Chivas, Pumas and Tigres.
Banbotoys works with three Chinese factories, which produce some 350,000 figures a year. They sell through official stores, toy stores, their website and in 2023 they will decorate, for the first time, the Easter cakes. They aspire to continue buying club licenses and become a benchmark in the sector. Meanwhile, they expect to end the year with a turnover of one million euros.
