Welcome to our master list of investments in blockchain games. Regularly updated, this is a list of every investment into blockchain game companies.
If you think there’s a deal we’ve missed, please email [email protected]
- Total investments during 2024 (so far): $800 million
- Total investment in 2023: $1.7 billion
- Total investments in 2022: $5.3 billion
- Total investments in 2021: $4 billion
- Total investments in 2020: $88 million
Azra Games has secured $42.7 million in a series A funding round led by Pantera Capital. Other participants included a16z crypto, a16z games, and NFX.
In total, Azra has now raised over $68 million for what it calls its vision on “4th generation of mobile RPGs”, more particularly its in development flagship title code-named Project Legends.
Azra founder and CEO, ex-Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Mark Otero commented, “I believe the 4th generation of mobile RPGs is competing with PC and console RPGs, featuring open worlds, over-the-shoulder camera perspectives, real-time battles, and extended PvE campaigns. It signifies a significant paradigm shift in mobile gaming. With our expanding expert team and robust funding, we are excited to bring Western gamers true console/PC-quality PRG experiences on their mobile devices.”
This influx of new funding will also see the company expand, with the introduction of R&D team Azra Labs, whose main focus will be to accelerate content creation with the integration of AI.
US-based Loot Labs has raised $6 million in a seed funding round led by Bitkraft, who also led the $1.5 million pre-seed round in May 2023. Other investors included Sfermion, Fabric Ventures, and Every Realm.
As for Loot Labs, it looks to expand its loot box platform Boxed.gg, with a significant launch into Counter-Strike set for 28th October.
“This is just one of many expansions of the Boxed.gg platform in the coming months. With support from our new and existing investors, we plan to expand to multiple new collectible categories, while also building more exciting and interactive experiences for our users,” commented Loot Labs founder and CEO Milan Harris.
UK game startup Dragonz Lab has raised $9 million in funding through a strategic equity investment from Syndicate Capital.
Based on Telegram, Dragonz Lab is working on tap game Dragonz Land which is deployed on the Venom blockchain. As for the funding, it will be used to develop new game features and expand the community through loyalty programs, sustainable tokenomics, and more.
Dubai-based outfit Synnax has announced a $1.1 million strategic funding round, in which Wintermute Ventures and TON Ventures both invested $550,000. Synnax’s longterm vision is to build a decentralized credit ratings platform.
However, it’s seeding that activity with dungeon-based trivia Telegram mini-game SynQuest, which has attracted 250,000 players in its first couple of weeks.
Darkbright Games has announced a $6 million seed round, which was led by Bitkraft. Other investors included Play Ventures, King River, ex-GuildFi DAO Zentry, and degens like Caballeros and Gam3girl, plus TreasureDAO and Arbitrum developer Offchain Labs.
The developer is working on life sim RPG Smolverse, described as “a quirky marriage Animal Crossing and Raft,” which runs as part of the TreasureDAO ecosystem.
Blockchain tech developer MagicBlock has raised $3 million in pre-seed funding from a16z Crypto’s startup accelerator program CSX. Earlier in 2024, MagicBlock joined in the program, and received the funding in conjunction with its participation.
The company is looking to scale its gaming technology Ephemeral Rollups, an engine designed to enhance the performance of fully onchain games and applications built on Solana.
What games and apps are building with MagicBlock are yet to be announced.
Hong Kong-based developer Nytro Labs has announced it’s raised $8 million for its forthcoming mobile 4X RPG Castile, which has entered open beta testing on the Aptos blockchain. Founded in 2017 and backed by Tencent and ByteDance, Nytro Labs says it’s now raised a total of $25 million.
The round was led by SevenX and OKX Ventures, with participation from Aptos Labs, Amber Group, HashKey, Leland Ventures and web3 game outfit Matr1x, which is co-publishing Castile.
Nytro Labs says Castile will be a ‘play and trade’ in which players can mint and trade in-game items such as gear. The economy will be underpinned by the game’s CAST token.
Ronin-based gaming community distribution platform Moku has announced a $5.4 million funding round, which was led by Sky Mavis and a16z Games’ Speedrun, which invests $750,000 into the companies that enter its 12-week program. As for funds, it included Framework, Arca, 32-Bit, Big Brain, Flying Falcon, Formless, Ed3n, and Bankless.
The rest of the round included Sky Mavis co-founders Jeff Zirlin and Trung Nguyen, in addition to Pixels’ Luke Barwikowki, YGG’s Gabby Dizon, and Axie KOLs Cocobear, Freak and Cloudwhite. Crunchroll’s Kun Gao and Holly Liu (ex-Kabam, ex-Animoca) also participated.
In terms of Moku, it’s aiming to build “a cutting-edge distribution ecosystem that enables gamers and creators to bring the next wave of engaging games to market.”
- August 2024
Hong-Kong headquartered game developer Mugen Interactive has raised $4 million in a seed funding round. Among the investors were Animoca Brands, OKX Ventures, Arche Fund, Selini Capital, SNZ Capital, Starship, Summer Ventures, Faculty Group, WAGMi Ventures, Oak Grove Ventures, Cryptonite Capital, PANONY, HerculesVC, and Mysten Labs. The round also included angel investor Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox.
Aiming to launch its flagship web3 game, mobile-based RPG/card game Legend of Arcadia, the new funding will be used to accelerate its development as it works towards a Q4 2024 launch.
“Legend of Arcadia has progressed to become one of the top games on mobile. We are extremely proud of what we have achieved and would like to thank our investors and partners for supporting us. Gaming is going to be the next big thing that will drive the mass adoption of web3, and we are immensely proud to be part of this movement,” said Mugen co-founder and CEO Andy Lee.
Japanese blockchain developer Double Jump Tokyo has announced a $10 million Series D round. It was led by Japanese strategic SBI Investment with participation from Sony. Other investors included Gate Ventures, Japanese degen Taisu and Singapore-based degen Bing Ventures. This takes the company’s total funding to beyond $36 million.
One result of the round will see Double Jump Tokyo collaborating with SBI to expand its web3 offerings, including games and infrastructure, as well as working with Sony on its recently-announced Soneium blockchain.
In terms of games, Double Jump Tokyo is working on Battle of Three Kingdoms, a TCG based on Sega’s Sangokushi Taisen IP, which is set to launch in Q4 2024 on the Oasys blockchain.
US-based blockchain game developer Gameplay Galaxy has announced an additional $11 million as part of its seed funding round, taking the total to $24 million. The round was led by Blockchain Capital and Merit Circle.
In regards to the funding, it will be used to support the development of Trial Xtreme Freedom, a mobile-based web3 sports game that is part of the company’s bike racing game franchise. More specifically, it’s aimed at expanding the game’s web3 features, including asset ownership in order to facilitate players to run their own tournaments.
“We are excited to accelerate development and revolutionize the gaming industry and bring web3 to the masses,” commented the team in a statement on X.
On the heels of announcing it’s received funding from TON Ventures, mobile gaming platform Gamee has raised funding from Pantera Capital for its Telegram and TON-based app WatBird. As with the previous announcement, the amount raised was not disclosed.
An Animoca Brands subsidiary, Gamee was one of the first companies launching its mobile games on Telegram back in 2016, and distributed its meme-based WatBird Protocol via the social app earlier in 2024. Since then, it claims it’s grown to over 2 million subscribers.
“Pantera Capital’s investment in GAMEE represents a significant vote of confidence in our vision to seamlessly integrate web3 mechanics into the gaming experiences we’ve cultivated for our community of 90 million gamers. This support will help us accelerate our mission to strengthen the community’s engagement with the TON ecosystem,” commented Gamee co-founder and chairman Bozena Rezab.
Adding to the $3.6 million it raised in June 2022, US game streaming reward outfit Soulbound has announced a further $4 million. The round included early investors such as Animoca Brands, Delta Blockchain, NGC Ventures, Panony and Big Brain. Not stated – but assumed given Soulbound is launching its SBT token before the end of 2024 – is that this is a token-based raise.
As for what Soulbound does, it allows watchers to complete in-game quests for rewards from Twitch streams, as well as enabling streamers to sell stickers and digital assets. It’s also working on a wagering feature. Games using Soulbound include Blast Royale, Blocklords, Influence, MetalCore Pixels, Shrapnel and Star Atlas.
Autoverse Studios has announced it’s raised $8 million in an investment round led by Star Capital. Other investors included Sfermion, RockawayX, Ocular, LiquidX, MCE Group, Saison Capital, and Sidedoor Ventures.
As for the funding, it’s earmarked for the continued development of the team’s Immutable-based cross-platform drag racing game Auto Legends. An early access PC-version is currently live via Epic Games, with full launch scheduled for later in 2024.
Web3 tech developer Cartridge has announced $7.5 million series A funding. Led by Bitkraft, the round also included StarkWare, Fabric Ventures, Dune Ventures, Primitive Ventures, and Ergodic Fund.
A core developer of open-source Dojo engine, Cartridge is building tools and infrastructure for fully onchain games and autonomous worlds.
“The future of gaming is onchain, and Cartridge’s Dojo engine is at the forefront of this revolution. By providing developers with the necessary tools and a supportive ecosystem, Cartridge is enabling the creation of decentralized, community-owned games that are not only innovative, but also scalable,” commented Bitkraft’s Nico Vereecke.
Web3 infrastructure startup NPC Labs has announced $18 million in seed funding, bringing its total to $21 million. Led by crypto VC Pantera, other investors in the round included Hashed, Collab+Currency, Mirana, Sfermion and Bitscale.
Co-founded by three ex-Coinbase members, NPC Labs is building a gaming L3 blockchain called B3 on Coinbase’s Base blockchain.
Soccerverse has secured $3.1 million in a funding round led by Square Enix. Early investor Hiro Capital also participated in the round.
Founded by ex-Soccer Manager CEO Andrew Gore, and blockchain gaming pioneers Andrew Colosimo and Daniel Kraft who worked on the first crypto game Huntercoin in 2014, the team is working towards the launch of fully onchain fantasy soccer game Soccerverse.
Currently running open beta testing on the Polygon blockchain, the game is scheduled for release in Q4 2024.
GM of investment and business dev at Square Enix Hideaki Uehara commented, “Soccerverse stands out as the most innovative and unique game using blockchain features in the genre. We’re eager to continue our journey with it, now from the perspective of investors as well as fans”.
Hiro Capital’s Sir Ian Livingstone added: “I dare not think about how many hours I’ve spent playing football management games over the years. I’d lapsed, but Soccerverse will inspire me to play again. The social layer and the investing in players dynamic are compelling new features. I’m looking forward to seeing Manchester City reach new heights!”
Web3 game startup Pixelverse has announced a $2 million extension to its recent $5.5 million funding round, taking total funding to $7.5 million.
Investors included Galaxy, Crit Ventures, and ARC, and angel investors Alex Krüger, Luke Belmar, and Mike Dudas.
Currently operating Telegram-based tap game PixelTap, Pixelverse is working towards the game’s global expansion.
Blockchain game distribution channel Elixir has announced a strategic investment from South Korean publisher Wemade, via its WEMIX blockchain platform. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
Elixir has previously received a similar investment from Square Enix, and raised a $14 million seed round prior to the launch of its ELIX token. It currently hosts over 150 games and claims over 1 million downloads since its launch.
Web3 infrastructure developer Mirror World has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Bitkraft, Big Brain and existing investor Galaxy Interactive, with participation from Sanctor and other existing investors such as OKX, Sky9 and Mirana.
Aimed at supporting game developers on the Solana ecosystem, Mirror World has built the first Solana-based scalable gaming L2 rollup Sonic. It combines its SVM game engine with its Hypergrid parallel processing framework to allow each game to run its own zk-based chain on top of the Solana mainnet.
Previously raising $4 million, Sonic has now secured $16 million in total funding.
20 blockchain game developers have officially been allocated a grant of Starknet’s $20 million Propulsion Pilot Program, which was announced in May 2024. Aimed at boosting gaming on Starknet – with a particular focus on fully onchain games – recipients of the funding include the likes of Eternum, Influence, Loot Survivor, PixeLAW, Starkane, and The Ninth. Each project will receive a maximum of $1 million, paid in STRK tokens, over the course of a year.
Find the full list of grantees here.
Web3 game startup Pixelverse has announced its raised $5.5 million in a funding round which included investors such as Delphi, Merit Circle and Pixelmon dev LiquidX, Mechanism, and more. Among some of the angel investors were Pudgy Penguins’ Luca Netz, The Sandbox’s Sebastien Borget and Delabs CEO Joonmo Kwon, and more.
Currently operating tap-to-points Telegram game PixelTap, Pixelverse says the funding will be used to boost its global expansion.
South Korean developer NDUS Interactive has announced $7.5 million in terms of total lifetime funding for its forthcoming thirdperson shooter Xociety. Local VC Hashed, which incubated the team, and the Sui blockchain, on which Xociety is deploying, led the round.
Other investors included South Korean publisher Krafton, angel investors such as Spartan, Big Brain and Taisu, plus guilds including YGG, Avocado, BreederDAO and Good Games Guild. Pixelmon developer LiquidX also invested.
UGC-focused metaverse The Sandbox has raised $20 million of convertible notes at a $1 billion valuation cap, in a funding round led by Kingsway Capital and Animoca Brands. Other investors included LG Tech Ventures and True Global Ventures.
Continuing to enhance its creator tools and game experiences, The Sandbox will use the funding to enhance its existing products, driven by its vision of decentralization and strong focus on UGC.
“We are deeply honoured by the continuing commitment to the vision of The Sandbox. McKinsey estimated that by 2030 the metaverse could add $5 trillion to the global economy; today, games like Minecraft and Roblox are some of the most popular titles in the world, but they do not provide their users with digital property rights. The Sandbox represents the evolution of UGC games for the age of digital ownership,” said Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu.
“Our mission at The Sandbox is to develop creative tools and technologies that bring fairness and new opportunities for all types of creators in the open metaverse in all aspects of culture, particularly games, music, fashion, art, sports, and entertainment,” commented The Sandbox CEO and co-founder Arthur Madrid.
Web3 infrastructure startup Play AI has announced its raised $4.3 million in seed funding. The round included P2 Ventures, Jump Crypto, Alphawave, Zentry, MH Ventures, and Tykhe Block Ventures, in addition to numerous angels.
Play AI aims to build a middleware providing game developers with data and tools collected via its Play Collective platform. The data is used to build and train AIs and agents based on the actions of highly ranked players, which is then released on the company’s Gaming Agent Marketplace.
“Artificial intelligence is the future of gaming and virtual worlds, but the cost and complexity of development has long been a major roadblock to adoption,” commented Play AI CEO Ramees. “We are ushering in a new chapter for gaming, where any developer can easily add AI elements like non-player character (NPC) agents, auto-generated worlds, automated dialogues, and story trees – either by selecting from a range of pre-trained models, or by putting out a request to the network.”
South Korean web3 game developer Supervillain Labs has announced it’s raised $4.5 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Aptos Labs and Neowiz’s Intella X, with other investors including Spartan Group, KIP-CRIT Interactive Contents Fund, Presto Labs, and Planetarium.
As a strategic partner and investor into Supervillain Labs, Aptos will facilitate the launch of the studio’s forthcoming games Supervillain: Idle RPG and Project ARK, which are deploying on the Aptos network.
As a co-investor, Intella X is also working with Supervillain Labs on a joint web3 project utilizing the IP from Intella X’s PFP NFT collection ERCC: Early Retired Cats Club.
UAE-based web3 game developer Param Labs has announced its raised a total of $7 million in combined seed and private funding rounds, led by Animoca Brands. Among other investors were Delphi Ventures, Cypher Capital, P2 Ventures (formerly Polygon Ventures), Mechanism Capital, Merit Circle, TRGC Capital, Double Peak Group, MH Ventures, and more, with Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu and Faze
Clan founder Banks also making strategic investments.
Param Labs is working on PC-based MMO game Kiraverse and creator platform Pixel to Poly.
In conjunction with its CTA token generation event launching on exchanges, Cross The Ages has announced it’s raised $3.5 million in an equity round led by Animoca Brands. Other investors include The Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget and Tenergie president Nicolas Jeuffrain.
In 2022, the developer secured $12 million in seed funding, led by Animoca and Ubisoft, for its narrative-led mobile TCG Cross The Ages.
Web3 game developer Seeds Labs has announced a $12 million seed funding round, in conjunction with the launch of its Solana-based PC/mobile RPG Bladerite. All of the investors are based in Singapore and the southeast Asia region, with three chain-related entities taking part, including Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund, Solana Foundation and Klaytn accelerator Krust. Among other investors are Hashkey, Signum, Infinity Venture Crypto, Emoote, and UOB Ventures.
Apart from building game infrastructure, Seeds Labs is working on its own web3 games, including flagship title Bladerite, which is a hack-and-slash fighting game recently launched via Google Play and App Store.
Swedish-headquartered game developer Patriots Division has announced $5 million in combined funding from its seed and Series A rounds. Crypto investor Momentum 6 led the Series A round, with other investors including iAngels, Cointelligence Fund, Xborg, Andromeda, Cogitent Ventures, and Cluster Capital.
The studio is currently running closed playtests for its flagship title Shadow War, which is described as a 5v5 hybrid third-person action game.
- April 2024
Web3 gaming infrastructure Style Protocol has raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Currently compatible with six blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, BNB, Avalanche and Harmony, Style Protocol enables users’ assets to move across different platforms. In effect, this means skins, weapons, and other in-game objects, can be functional in multiple game worlds.
Using utility token STYLE, users can pay a fee to transform their NFTs into 3D assets and avatars that can be deployed within Style’s ecosystem games and virtual worlds. Supported projects include The Sandbox, Roblox, Fortnite, GTA, League of Legends, Dota 2, Decentraland, Spatial, Mona, and Cryptovoxels.
As well as preparing for the forthcoming Style mainnet launch and public IDO, the company is also working on integrating an AI creator tool allowing users to generate 3D avatars using text prompts.
Omnichain protocol Holograph takes total funding to $11 million with a new funding round of $3 million, led by Mechanism Capital and Selini Capital. Other investors included Northrock Capital, Arca, Courtside Ventures, and Hartmann Capital.
Developing infrastructure that aims to enhance cross-chain interoperability, Holograph says the new funding will be used to advance omnichain gaming. Currently, Holopraph allows users to mint NFTs on any supported blockchain and deploy them across Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, Base, Zora, Arbitrum, Mantle, BNB Chain, Avalanche, and Linea.
Carv has announced a $10 million Series A funding round, led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures. Other participants included Consensys, OKX Ventures, Draper Dragon, No Limit Holdings, Marblex, ARPA, and more.
Carv protocol provides a data layer in web3 and AI enabling gamers and users to own and monetize their data. With the new funding, the company aims to expand its data layer, which it’s so far has integrated with over 40 chain ecosystems and 700 games.
Chess-themed web3 strategy game Anichess has secured $1.8 million in funding, adding to the $1.5 million raised in a seed round in June 2023. Led by Sfermion and Amber Group, other investors included Fenbushi Capital, Aspen Digital, SNZ Capital, and more.
Anichess is co-developed by Animoca Brands, online chess platform Chess.com, and five-time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen.
Web3 game developer Infinigods has secured $8 million in a Series A funding round, which was led by Pantera Capital.
In total, Infinigods has now raised $16 million for its gaming ecosystem consisting of mobile flagship title King of Destiny, as well as browser-based games InfiniMerge and Immortal Siege. Boosted by the new funding, the team says it will double down on its vision to take web3 mobile gaming mainstream.
Web3 gaming company Tevaera has announced a $5 million funding round, led by Laser Digital, Nomura Group. Other participants include Hashkey Capital, Fenbushi Capital, Matter Labs, Draper Dragon, Faculty Group, Crypto.com Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Selini Capital, DWF Labs, Morningstar Ventures, DCF God, Momentum6, GBV Capital, Mapleblock Capital, GD10 Capital, Aquanow, Coinswitch, and others.
In development on zkSync for two years, Tevaera is building a ZK Stack-powered one-stop gaming ecosystem. The company has also unveiled plans to launch two forthcoming games, as well as a gaming-focused L3, also built on zkSync.
“Tevaera, one of the first gaming projects on zkSync, is on a mission to unlock the next era of web3 games. They’ve shown remarkable resilience and technical acumen building an EVM compatible, multiplayer framework for on-chain games,” commented Matter Labs Head of web3 entertainment and media Rich Kim.
Alongside the news of its forthcoming migration from BNB to Ronin, Puffverse has announced a $3 million funding round. Led by Animoca Brands, other investors included Sky Mavis, Arcane Group, Spartan Group, Foresight Ventures, HashKey Capital, and Xu Family Office.
US-based web3 game studio Avalon has announced a $10 million funding round, which was co-led by Bitkraft Ventures and Hashed. Other participants include Coinbase Ventures, Spartan Capital, Foresight Ventures, LiquidX (Pixelmon), and Momentum6.
Founded in 2021 by Jeffrey Butler, one of the original producers for EverQuest, alongside Sean Pinnock and Zack Karlsson, and a team with experiences from the likes of Call of Duty, Diablo, God of War, Assassin’s Creed and Elden Ring, Avalon is building eponymous UGC-focused AI-heavy MMORPG Avalon.
“The AVALON universe prioritizes delivering an immersive gameplay experience by combining cutting-edge tech like Unreal Engine 5 with AI-assisted user-generated content systems. Our focus on a no-code solution enables players to create game logic effortlessly. Plus, our upcoming NFT collection will introduce AI-powered avatar NFTs, adding another layer of innovation,” commented Avalon founder and CEO Sean Pinnock.
The studio previously announced a $13 million funding round in February 2023.
Social simulation game Today has announced a $5 million seed round, which was led by Sfermion and Big Brain, with participation from GSR, Collab+Currency, Lingfeng Innovation Fund (part of Chinese PE fintech group Lingfeng Capital), Compute Ventures and Builder Capital.
As for Today, it’s perfectly positioned to the current meta, mixing blockchain, UGC and AI; in particular it’s developing an AI-driven avatar engine and no-code tools for UGC.
In that context, CEO Michael O’Connor commented; “AI offers novel and powerful creative tools for users to build unique virtual worlds that reflect their tastes and preferences. Blockchain technology ensures that creators have complete ownership over these worlds, positioning them as the undisputed stakeholders in their creations. Additionally, AI-powered NPCs who inhabit the virtual worlds are capable of interacting with the blockchain, introducing innovative functionalities and interactions both within these player-owned environments and the broader crypto ecosystem”.
Today is expected to launch its alpha in early 2025, although is running periodic play tests through 2024 and has its Ancient Seed NFT mint on 9th April.
Minecraft-inspired UGC platform Hytopia has announced it generated more than $8 million from the node sale for its Arbitrum-based L2 infrastructure Hychain. It sold 16,876 node keys to 3,357 unique holders.
However, thanks to the innovative referral system it used, an additional $1 million was also distributed by thirdparties who bought the nodes at a discount, also promoting the node sale to their followers. Node holders will earn 25% of transaction fees, plus there is also a 250 million TOPIA token reward pool, which is currently worth $17 million.
Currently in closed alpha, it’s expected Hytopia’s closed beta will launch in April. You can find out more thanks to our recent interview with co-founder ArkDev.
- March 2024
US developer Parallel Studios has announced a $35 million funding round. Notable investors included Distributed Global, The Operating Group, VanEck, Focus Labs, Big Brain Holdings, Solana Ventures, Devmons, Builder Capital, Base, Spartan, and more. Numerous private investors also participated in the round including some Solana founders and gaming angels such as Gabby Dizon (YGG), Luca Petz (Pudgy Penguins), Grails, Dingaling and Loopify.
While recently launching its initial game Parallel TCG in open beta, Parallel Studios is also working on Solana-based AI sim Colony, which is slated for launch in 2025.
Spanish web3 gaming platform Elixir Games has announced $14 million in seed funding, including investments from Square Enix, Solana Foundation and Shima Capital, among other private investors.
More broadly, Elixir is working on the expansion of its web3 gaming ecosystem, which is set to launch later in 2024. A particular focus is the Launchpad and Incubation Program, aimed at helping game developers launch their games on the Elixir platform, which is also slated for release later in the year. Part of the funding has also been earmarked to facilitate the forthcoming launch of the platform’s ELIX token.
Elixir Games CEO Carlos Roldan commented, “This achievement reflects our commitment to innovation, unity, and excellence in web3 gaming. As we embark on this journey, our focus is on fostering a community with our infrastructure that leads to groundbreaking gaming experiences.”
Web3 game developer Illuvium has announced a $12 million series A funding round, which was co-led by Arrington Capital, King River Capital , Animoca Brands, and The Spartan Group. Among other investors were Arca, Selini Capital, Polygon Ventures, 32-Bit Ventures, Yield Guild Games, and more.
Illuvium is currently working on the expansion of its interoperable gaming series, including Illuvium Overworld and Illuvium Arena, for which the funding is earmarked.
German developer Gunzilla Games has announced a $30 million investment into its ecosystem, which as well as PC/console shooter Off The Grid, includes its Avalanche subnet infrastructure Gunz. Gunzilla previously announced a $46 million Series B round in August 2022.
$10 million of the new funding came from a token sale to existing investors CoinFund, Avalanche fund Blizzard, Republic Capital and Morningstar. The remaining $20 million was described as “previously unreported equity and validator sales”.
There’s no specific news about when Off The Grid will be released but it’s stated that the funding will be “applied towards the game launch and the initial wave of post-release content for the rest of the year”.
Web3 gaming platform Gam3s.gg has announced a $2 million funding round. Among the investors were Merit Circle, WWVentures, Cogitent Ventures, P2 Ventures, Cypher Capital, Acheron, Basics Capital, OIG Capital, BreederDAO, MetaBros, Hercules Ventures, BasementDAO. Angel investors included Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon, Sky Mavis co-founder Jeff Zirlin, and LiquidX co-founder Giulio Xiloyannis.
In addition to launching its native token G3, the funding is earmarked to enhance the Gam3s.gg superapp, which aims to remove friction points and make web3 gaming mainstream. To this end, Gam3s.gg plans is to integrate cloud gaming functionality, introduce a seasonal battlepass system, and more.
Ronin-based PC topdown shooter The Machines Arena from Directive Games has announced a $5 million seed round, which was led by Arca, Delphi and Framework. Other participants included Sky Mavis, 32-Bit Ventures, Sfermion, Flying Falcon and YGG plus angels including Santiago Santos, YGG’s Gabby Dizon and Delphi’s Piers Kicks.
Notably one of the investors is Impossible Finance, which ran the Ronin-based launchpad for Apeiron’s highly successful APRS token event.
LA-based Carbonated Games has announced a $13 million Series A funding round, which was led by Com2uS, with participation from a16z, Bitkraft, Cypher Capital, Blocore, Goal Ventures and WAGMI.
The funds from the current round will be used to complete, launch (during 2024) and scale its thirdperson AI-enabled squad shooter MadWorld, which also boasts deep clan-focused territory world meta gameplay.
As you’d expect given Com2uS’ involvement, MadWorld will run on its XPLA blockchain, with players having the ability to own NFTs such as monuments, which can be attached to their in-game land to boost earnings.
Singapore-based dev 9 Lives Interactive has announced a $3 million funding round, which was led by Mechanism Capital, with participation from Sfermion, 3Commas, Momentum 6 and others.
The investment will be used to launch 9 Lives’ game Nyan Heroes. 9 Interactive had previously raised $11 million from 19 investors with Mechanism previously leading its seed round in October 2021.
Nyan Heroes is a team-based cat-and-mech-themed PC shooter, which has been in development on Solana since 2021. As with many games, it’s currently running a points campaign — with a play-to-airdrop event starting 26th March — prior to the launch of its NYAN token, so this investment is likely a token sale.
Singaporean game developer Pangu has announced a $10 million private A funding round for the continued development of its PC/mobile MMORPG MetaCene. Investors included SevenX Ventures – which also participated in the $5 million seed round in July 2023 – Folius Ventures, Spartan, Mantle, Animoca Brands, LongLing Capital, Comma3, and IGG.
MetaCene is currently preparing for a third and final alpha test before its open beta launch.
US outfit Studio 369 has announced a $5 million funding round for the continued development and launch of its PC shooter MetalCore. Investors included Bitkraft, Delphi Digital, Sanctor Capital, Spartan, Arrington, Pixelmon developer LiquidX plus angel investors such as Zeneca, Grails, EllioTrades and Aggero.
One of the first games to go live on the Immutable zkEVM infrastructure and distributed via the Epic Games Store, MetalCore recently completed a closed beta test and also plans to release details about its token launch in the near future.
Designed for both web2 and web3 players, MetalCore is an open-world combined arms experience ranging from air vehicles and giant mechs to compact spaces for intense human scale combat.
Limited to Apeiron NFT holders, the first of Apeiron’s two token sale community rounds is complete. With a total of $660,000 raised, the APRS allocation sold out in under a minute.
The next community round begins Thursday 14th March, with a total of $990,000 worth of APRS, after which the sale among Ronin’s community members starts on 15th March.
To be eligible for the Ronin community sale, which contains $440,000 worth of APRS tokens, users must hold staked RON, wRON, in their Ronin wallet.
Pixelmon has raised $7.1 million through its MON token sale. In total $19.1 million-worth of ETH was bid from over 11,000 unique wallets during the community sale. Unsuccessful bidders will be refunded.
20% of the tokens will be unlocked at the token generating event (TBA), with the remainder vesting over the coming 24 months.
- February 2024
Web3 analytics company Helika has raised $8 million in series A funding. Led by blockchain VC Pantera Capital, the round also included Sparkle Ventures, Diagram, Sfermion, and more.
Led by CEO Anton Umnov, Helika provides data tools and infrastructure to empower game developers, and the new funding will be used to develop AI powered tools aimed at driving growth for web2 and web3 games.
Overworld, led by Xterio co-founder Jeremy Horn, has raised $10 million in a seed round. Co-led by Hashed, Spartan Group, Sanctor Capital and Galaxy Interactive, among other investors in the round were Signum Capital, Big Brain Holdings, Foresight Ventures, Hashkey and Matrix.
The funding is earmarked to the development of anime-inspired multiplayer sandbox RPG Overworld.
AI and blockchain gaming studio Ultiverse has announced it’s raised $4 million in a private token sale. Led by IDG Capital, other investors included Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures, Morningstar Ventures, Manta Network, DWF Ventures, and more.
This brings Ultiverse’s total funding over $20 million, and enables the team to keep working on its AI-driven web3 gaming platform.
Pixels has announced that Pixels Foundation has raised $4.8 million in a strategic funding round from investors including Framework Venture Partners, Collab+Currency, Volt Capital, and Bloccre. Several angels also participated in the round.
Web3 game studio Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow has raised $3 million for social deduction game The Mystery Society. Led by Shima Capital, the funding round also included Sfermion, GSR Markets, Arca, Lyrik Ventures, Flying Falcon, Press Start Capital and 32-Bit Ventures. The team also received a grant from Polygon Labs, with its forthcoming game to launch on Polygon.
Founded by noted Disney and Universal gaming exec Chris Heatherly, The Mystery Society is a social deduction game currently available on browser and PC, with mobile planned in the future.
LiquidX, the Singapore-based company that rescued and acquired the Pixelmon NFT project – originally infamous for its 3 ETH mint and Kevin artwork reveal – has announced it’s raised $8 million to further develop Pixelmon games and the forthcoming Mon Protocol fractionalization platform and MON token.
Investors included Animoca, Delphi, Bitscale , Mechanism Capital, Sfermion, Merit Circle and Spartan Labs. Angels included Kun Gao (Crunchyroll), Gabby Dizon (YGG), Robbie Ferguson (Immutable), FaZe Banks, Loopify (Endless Clouds) and Zeneca.
- January 2024
Vermillion – a joint venture between DAO Merit Circle and Dutch developer Duckland Games – has announced a $7 million funding round for its F2P social party game Forgotten Playland. Merit Circle led the round while degens like Spartan Group and C2 Ventures invested alongside new web3 VC Paper Ventures.
Channelling something of the look and feel of Little Big Planet, Forgotten Playland is a collection of mini-games, in which players customize their plushie bears, which can also be NFTs. It set to launch in Q1 2024 on Merit Circle’s BEAM platform.
Mon Studios has raised $1.35 million in seed funding from investors including 32-Bit Ventures, Momentum 6, D64, Yunt Capital, and more. Among some of the angel investors are Loopify, Dingaling, and Animoca Brands executives.
The funding will enable Mon Studios to continue working on forthcoming mobile-first MMORPG Spellborne, and Guardians of Celestia.
Web3 gaming platform Arcade has announced it’s raised $4.8 million in a private token round, which was led by Crypto.com Capital. Among other investors were Solana Ventures, Shima Capital, KuCoin Labs and GSR. The company will also hold a public token sale on the 27th of February.
Arcade is a gaming hub enabling players to rent NFTs in order to get rewarded for playing blockchain games. While initially building on Solana, the platform has since migrated to Ethereum and Avalanche.
Web3 mobile game developer AOFVerse has announced it’s raised $3 million in a private funding round led by Animoca Ventures. Other investors include Liquid X Ventures, Chainridge VC, Ticker Capital, Flying Falcon and BSCN Gaming Ventures.
AOFverse is working on a series of mobile games, including real-time deck-builder Army of Fortune and strategy game Army of Tactics.
Solana-based card strategy racing game MixMob has raised $2.5 million via its MixBot NFT mint. 10,000 MixBot packages consisting of an NFT and MXM tokens, priced at $250, sold out via Magic Eden. The NFTs are now selling with a floor price of around 4 SOL ($400).
Mobile 4X game Age of Dinos has raised $5.7 million via its first NFT mint, which sold 4,862 NFTs at a mint price of 0.59 ETH ($1,500).
The game is due for release in H1 2024 and is being developed by Singapore outfit GamePhilos Studio, which raised $8 million in seed funding in September 2023. It is leveraging the Xterio Foundation platform from FunPlus-spinout Xterio and FunPlus’ own game engine, and will deploy on the opBNB L2 blockchain.
ArenaX Labs, the developer of AI-centric fighting strategy game AI Arena, has announced a $6 million funding round, which was led by Framework Ventures. Other investors included SevenX, FunPlus/Xterio and Moore Strategic Ventures. ArenaX Labs previously announced a $5 million seed round in October 2021.
The browser-based Super Smash Bros-styled game will be F2P with its blockchain elements described as “a web3-enabled version will be available for highly skilled players who can compete to earn rewards”. It will launch on Arbitrum with a beta planned in early 2024.
- December 2023
Team shooter Farcana has announced a $10 million funding round. Notable investors include Animoca Brands and Polygon Ventures. Among other participants are Merit Circle and Kapo Capital as well as multiple angel investors.
Nexon’s blockchain division Nexon Universe has announced that it’s raised $100 million (KRW 125 billion) for the development and launch of MapleStory Universe platform, which consists of PC game MapleStory N, mobile game MapleStory N Mobile, UGC platform MapleStory N World, and the MapleStory N SDK.
The raise was via “paid-in capital” from Nexon rather than external investment.
More details about the launch of MapleStory Universe and its token is expected in 2024.
Line Next has announced a $140 million strategic investment from local private equity company Crescendo Equity Partners, which will be used to accelerate the growth of its DOSI blockchain social and gaming platform in 2024.
Animoca’s NFT and community project Mocaverse has announced it’s raised $11.88 million, bringing its total funding to-date to $32 million.
Investors including Block1, OKX Ventures, Foresight Ventures, Polygon Ventures and Dapper Labs, who have received Animoca shares at a price of A$4.5 million plus a token warrant granted on a 1:1 basis.
Mocaverse is described as an “interoperable meta experience layer for web3 identity, social, and growth,” in which users can “earn and spend Realm Points by engaging within the Mocaverse ecosystem, seeded by Animoca Brands portfolio companies and partner network”.
Endless Clouds, the developer of blockchain games Treeverse and Capsule Heroes, has announced a $2.5 million funding round.
Led by Animoca Brands, the round also included founders and executives from companies like Sky Mavis, YGG, Faze Clan, Immutable, Pudgy Penguins, Pixelmon, Pixels Online, Pixel Vault and more.
- November 2023
Earlier in 2023, 4×4 team shooter Farcana announced it was onboarding Animoca Brands as a strategic advisor to develop the game’s tokenomics and refine its market strategy. Furthering this collaboration, the Dubai-based team has now secured a strategic investment from Animoca, aimed at propelling its forthcoming beta launch and integration within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
“Our strategic investment into Farcana is part of the vision of Animoca Brands to drive Web3 development in MENA; the region is rapidly modernizing and adopting emerging technologies, and we’re excited to support partners such as Farcana as they actively lead the sector and bring exciting products to market,” commented Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Sui.
Slated for launch in early 2024, Farcana is powered by permanent Bitcoin prize pools and is set to be one of the first web3 games to introduce its Bitcoin ordinals free mint.
“This strategic investment from Animoca Brands is definitely a significant milestone for Farcana. During the bear market, we were fully focused on building and delivering one of the best games in web3, and we are incredibly excited to bring it to the market next year,” added Farcana founder and CEO Ilman Shazhaev.
Web3 game developer Matr1x has raised $10 million in a second series A round, bringing the total amount raised to $20 million. Co-led by Folius Ventures and SevenX, among other investors were ABCDE Capital, Find Satoshi Lab, Jambo, and Initiate Capital.
Singapore-headquartered Matr1x has various web3 mobile games in development, with its flagship FPS Matr1x Fire set to launch during Q4 2023-Q1 2024.
New layer 1 blockchain Saga has announced a $5 million seed extension round. It was led by US VC Placeholder, which was founded by crypto OGs Joel Monegro and Chris Burniske. Other participants in the round included Longhash Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Red Beard Ventures, Tykhe Ventures, Com2uS, and AVID3. Saga has now raised $13.5 million.
US developer Bazooka Tango has announced it’s raised $5 million for its PC game Shardbound, which is due to go live on the Immutable blockchain sometime in 2024.
The round was led by Bitkraft with participation from RW3 Ventures, Sfermion and 1Up Ventures. Bitkraft and RW3 Ventures were also involved in the company’s $2.5 million seed round in March 2020.
Part of a strategic collaboration between Animoca Brands, Amazon Web Services, and Polygon Labs – AWS is investing $1.1 million in a new accelerator program called MoonRealm.
Earmarked to support web3 startups through hackathons, technical support and workshops, the accelerator program is focused on extending Animoca’s Polygon-deployed Mocaverse ecosystem.
US-based early stage VC Transcend has announced the closing of its second seed fund of $60 million.
With Laguna Games, Roboto Games, IndiGG, XPLA, and Polygon part of its portfolio, Transcend focuses on games and digital entertainment startups.
As per the official statement, the team increased the funding to $60 million in round two based on the success of seed round one.
“While staying true to the winning strategy of Fund I, we took the opportunity to increase Fund II slightly to around $60 million. We are immensely proud and appreciative of the trust and confidence placed in Transcend by both our exceptional investor group and the visionary founders who have selected us to be their partner.”
Certainly more upbeat than most about the future of gaming, Transcend managing director Shanti Bergel comments, “The idea that games are uninvestable – those days are far behind us.”
The developer behind Ethereum-based space-themed title The Citadel has announced a seed funding round of $3.3 million, led by 1kx. Among other investors were Shima Capital, HASHED, Matchbox DAO, Ready Player DAO, and several angels.
The Citadel is a fully onchain space world that’s been in development for two years, and the funding “secures years of runway” for the team to keep building, according to the official announcement.
- October 2023
New Saudi city ecosystem NEOM has announced a strategic partnership with Animoca Brands that will also see it invest $50 million via the NEOM Investment Fund. Half of this will be covered by the issuance of new convertible notes at a conversion cap price of A$4.50 per share; the same price at which Animoca raised $110 million in September 2022 and $20 million for its Mocaverse collection in September 2023. The remaining $25 million will be used to purchase Animoca shares on the secondary market.
In terms of the deal itself, Animoca will work with NEOM to build out its web3 capabilities both on a global scale and including a local hub.
Web3 gaming studio Moonveil has announced its closed a $5.4 million seed funding round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Arcane Group. Among other investors were Longhash, IOSG Ventures and Infinity Venture Crypto.
Aiming to create an open gaming ecosystem, Moonveil currently has two blockchain titles in development; mobile-based tower defense game Astrark, which is set to release in Q4 2023, and multiplayer strategy game Project B.
Neon Machine — the developer of highly anticipated PC extraction shooter Shrapnel — has announced a $20 million Series A round, which follows its $10.5 million seed round announced in November 2021.
The Series A was led by Polychain Capital, which also led the seed round. Other investors included Griffin Gaming Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Franklin Templeton, IOSG Ventures and Tess Ventures.
Neon Machine — which now has a headcount of 70 — expects to have a paid first playable of Shrapnel out before the end of 2023, with a free-to-play version to follow in 2024.
Web3 gaming and creator platform Hytopia, previously called NFT Worlds, has announced it’s secured $3 million in funding. The round was led by Delphi Ventures.
Minecraft-inspired Hytopia is building its own gaming engine as well as creator tools which will enable users to build voxel-style settings and experiences. In addition, the developer has recently launched its own l2 chain Hytopia Mainnet.
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US developer Uplandme has announced an additional $7 million to its series A funding round, bringing the total funding to $25 million. While the company raised $18 million in 2022 from investors including C3 Venture Capital and Animoca Brands, this round included new investor EOS Network Ventures.
With the aim to expand its mobile-based monopoly-style metaverse Upland, the funding will be used to advance its economy and AI integration. Uplandme recently announced plans to introduce a new Ethereum-based ERC-20 called Sparklet. Part of the new funding will be earmarked to list its SPARK token on external exchanges.
Social gaming hub Forge has announced it’s raised $11 million in a seed round led by Makers Fund, Bitkraft, and Animoca Brands. Among other participants are Hashkey Capital, Polygon Ventures, Formless Capital and Adaverse.
Through its gaming platform, Forge aims to connect gamers as well as reward their gameplay and contributions to the wider gaming community. Players can also participate in quests created by Forge’s game partners, which initially include Portal Fantasy, Genopets, Mojo Melee, Pixelmon, Rushdown Revolt and The Sandbox.
Players can sign up for its recently launched beta at the Forge platform.
Animoca-owned French developer Darewise Entertainment has announced it’s raised $3.5 million via the pre-sale of the token that will underpin the forthcoming Bitcoin-based ecosystem for its PC game Life Beyond.
Investors included crypto VCs such as Gamefi Ventures, London Real Ventures, Citizen Capital and Blocore, as well as Animoca Ventures and Animoca Brands’ executive chairman Yat Siu.
As well as underpinning economic activity on Life Beyond, Darewise hopes its new token will also provide opportunities for brands to get involved in the game as well as other IRL experiences. Currently being created in conjunction with ApeCoin advisory outfit Horizen Labs, the token will be released in early 2024.
“For this round we are thrilled to welcome meaningful investors who not only believe in our project and values, but who also come from across the spectrum of gaming and web3 culture. It’s a significant indicator of confidence in building on the Bitcoin ecosystem,” commented Darewise CEO Benjamin Charbit.
German climate change-focused blockchain game Zeedz has announced it’s raised a $1 million seed round, in conjunction to launching the game on Apple App Store and Google Play. The round was led by the panelists of Die Hohle der Lowen, Germany’s version of the Shark Tank TV show.
Zeedz is currently available as a free-to-play experience or playable with NFTs on the Flow blockchain.
Blockchain horse racing project Game of Silks has announced it’s secured $5 million in a series 2 seed round, taking its total funding to $10 million. Investors included FunFair Ventures and race horse retailer Taylor Made.
Game of Silks, which mints NFT versions of real world race horses and base rewards on their real-world performance, has licensing deals with the likes of The Jockey Club, NYRA, Saratoga Race Track and FOX Sports’ Americas Best Racing.
“Securing this funding in such a difficult economic environment is a testament to the promise of blockchain gaming and a nod to our early success as one of the few companies growing rapidly in the space,” said Silks CEO and co-founder Dan Nissanoff.
Wemade’s Singapore-based web3 subsidiary Wemix has invested in five Chinese blockchain game developers, through a joint fund with Mirana Ventures, earmarked to blockchain games.
Of the fund’s $30 million total, $6.4 million have been invested into five – as-yet-unnamed – games, all of which will onboard the Wemix Play platform.
Mirana Ventures is an investment division owned by crypto platform Bybit.
Blockchain gaming engine and developer Paima Studios has secured a $1.4 million grant from Cardano to expand its Autonomous World infrastructure and catalogue of fully onchain games.
While its gaming optimized Paima engine is used by other game developers, Paima also has several titles in development, including RPG Tarochi, Wrath of the Jungle: Tower defense and Jungle Wars.
- September 2023
Helsinki-headquartered game startup Spectarium has announced a $5 million seed round led by Bitkraft. Other investors include Delphi Digital and Framework Ventures.
Founded by Romain Schneider, Mark Peterson, and Plarium co-founders Avi and Gabi Shalel, the Spectarium team also includes members from EA, Epic Games, Riot Games, and Square Enix.
Singapore-seated Mythic Protocol has announced a $6.5 million seed funding round, led by Shima Capital and Indonesian outfit Alpha JWC. Other investors include Saison Capital, GDV Venture, Arcane Group, Korean web3 gaming outfits Planetarium and Marblex, and more.
As well as being aimed towards its collaborative action-shooter RPG Riftstorm, the funding will be used for the development of Mythic Protocol’s creator platform Dumb, and DeFi product Legacy.
Singapore-based game studio GamePhilos has announced an $8 million seed funding round.
Led by Xterio, Chain Hill Capital, Animoca Ventures and SevenX Venture, other investors included Hashkey, Sanctor, Game7, Bas1s, GSR, and GSG Ventures.
Founded in 2022, GamePhilos will use the funding for its mobile and PC strategy Age of Dino 4X game.
Leading web3 gaming company Animoca Brands has announced a $20 million funding round into its umbrella NFT collection Mocaverse. The funding has been raised via the issue of new shares at a price of A$4.50 per share. As part of the round, its investors has been granted a free-attaching utility token warrant on a 1:1 dollar basis.
Led by blockchain VC CMCC Global, other investors (all previous active Animoca investors) include UK-based Kingsway Capital, Liberty City Ventures and GameFi Ventures. In addition, Sky Mavis founder Aleksander Larsen, YGG founder Gabby Dizon, and Animoca’s executive chairman Yat Sui participated in the round.
Earmarked for product development and web3 adoption of the Mocaverse project, the funding will also be used more generally to expand Animoca Brands’ ecosystem.
Mocaverse is currently gearing up for the launch of its non-transferable NFT collection Moca ID, which will enable users to build their on-chain identities. Moreover, users will get access to social and playable experiences in the Mocaverse ecosystem, as well as the opportunity to earn loyalty points for engagement.
“The ongoing evolution of the Internet involves a shift from hierarchical power structures to autonomous ones, and the DAO-based approach of Mocaverse ensures that its community will be focused on driving innovation and collaboration across the broader Animoca Brands ecosystem, said Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Sui.
- August 2023
Turkish game developer Hungri Games has announced a $1.9 million seed round on a valuation of $23 million. Formed in 2019 and previously known for its F2P mobile titles, Hungri is now working on web3 games, notably its forthcoming Polygon-basedhorse racing RPG Metahorse Unity, which is launching its first NFT mint on 31st August.
The round was led by local investor Bogazici Ventures, who alongside UA outfit Triple Dragon previously invested in the company’s 2019 funding round. Other participants included local incubator Roko Finance, Presto Labs and angels such as The Sandbox’s Sebastien Borget and Erol Ozmandiraci, Oyunfor Tanriverdi and Caglan Tanriverdi who previously worked on projects with Hungri.
South Korean web3 developer Delabs has announced a $4.7 million seed round, which was led by well known local VC Hashed. Other investors included local developer Planetarium (Nine Chronicles), Polygon Labs, Spartan Ventures and Merit Circle.
Delabs is part of web2 developer 4:33 and is working on three blockchain games including the forthcoming Rumble Racing Star.
Singapore-based game developer Eyeball Games has completed a $1.5 million pre-seed funding round. Led by White Star Capital, the round also included Polygon Ventures, Immutable and Singaporean VCs Ocular and GSG Ventures.
Eyeball Games was set up by the team behind highly successful 8 Ball Pool. Currently the studio is working on web3 title Eyeball Pool, which was recently announced to migrate to Immutable’s Polygon-based zkEVM platform.
Singapore-based developer Pangu Software has raised $5 million in a seed round for its MMORPG MetaCene. Led by SevenX Ventures and Hash Global, among other investors in the round were WeMade, MixMarvel DAO Venture, Emurgo, Sinovation Ventures, and LK Venture.
MetaCene is set to be the first game to deploy on Rangers sub-chain, with launch slated for Q4 2023.
In the announcement, the team commented, “Our focus on player-centric entertainment, governance, and creation creatively combines the Web2 and Web3 elements, fostering a next-generation blockchain game. Our approach has garnered support from both Web3 and Web2 firms, signalling the potential for MetaCene to revolutionize the gaming industry”.
Binance’s VC and incubation arm Binance Labs has committed $15 million into web3 gaming platform and publisher Xterio.
Aiming to use the funding to further game and tech development, Xterio will particularly focus on expanding the integration of AI, and the launch of its tokens.
The founding executive team includes leaders from FunPlus, Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, Krafton, Jam City, and NetEase.
“The Xterio core team brings together experienced web2 professionals with web3 expertise, we look forward to closely working with them to allow gamers around the world to experience rich on-chain gameplay,” said head of Binance Labs Yi He.
London-based Pixion Games has announced it’s raised $5.5 million to complete and launch its forthcoming mobile RPG Fableborne.
Participants included previous investors Shima Capital and Eldridge. Others involved in the seed round included VGC Partners, Zee Prime, GSR and Mechanism Capital, and DAOs such as Merit Circle and ReadyPlayerDAO.
Avalanche ecosystem fund Blizzard and Avalaunch were also involved. The game is launching on the Avalanche blockchain.
Fableborne is currently running various closed playtests for its community. An asychronous game, it will have both PVE and PVP elements, with its Pixion League being a key component in terms of offering the best rewards via leaderboards and ladder placement.
Web3 chess game Anichess has announced a completed seed round of $1.5 million. Among the investors are GameFi Ventures, The Operating Group, Koda Capital, Bing Ventures, 708 Capital, Asymmetry Capital, and more.
An Animoca Brands subsidiary, Anichess is developed in partnership with Play Magnus Group and its Champions Chess Tour, which is owned by leading chess platform Chess.com.
With the funding, Anichess will continue its development of a decentralised chess game involving skill and strategy with the implementation of esports elements. Alpha is expected to go live in Q1 2024.
Web3 game Cat Paradise, with backing from game developer Pluto Games, has announced a seed funding round of nearly $1 million, based on a $15 million valuation. Among the investors are Mask Network and Moon Capital.
With this funding, play-to-earn Cat Paradise, running on the TON blockchain, will focus on advancing its on-chain technology, expanding its development team, and marketing.
Web3 game incubator Decentralised Gaming Ventures has announced that South Korean VC Hashed has invested what it calls a ‘seven figure’ sum into its operations.
Based in Singapore, Decentralised Gaming Ventures’ focus is to empower the growth of the most promising emerging game developers across the wider SEA region, among other measures by acquiring independent studios and providing them with mentorship, collaborative development, and access to intellectual property.
“We’re at the very beginning of a journey to transform game development across the region by giving promising young game makers access to capital, community, mentorship, blockchain technology protocol, co-development capabilities and major IP access,” said Decentralised Gaming Ventures’ CEO Samson Oh.
Launched by Game7 DAO and MetaMask, web3 game store launcher and aggregator HyperPlay has raised $12 million in series A funding, co-led by Griffin Gaming, Bitkraft Ventures and ConsenSys. Other investors were Ethereal Ventures, Delphi Digital, Game7, Mirana Ventures and Monoceros Ventures.
Currently running in early access, HyperPlay’s game launcher enables players to carry their wallets, tokens, NFTs and other assets into all games through an integrated wallet overlay.
“We look forward to leveraging the capital raise to strengthen our product as the premier Web3 gaming platform and continue to expand our global footprint”, commented founder of HyperPlay JacobC.eth.
Argus Labs has raised $10 million in a seed round led by Haun Ventures. Among other investors were Alchemy, Anagram, Dispersion Capital, Robot Ventures. Some of the prominent angel investors were co-creator of Dark Forest Alan Luo, former CTO of Coinbase Balaji Srinivasan and co-founder of Gojek Kevin Aluwi.
Built around a collective of hackers and designers, who were also involved in seminal fully onchain game Dark Forest, Argus is aiming to push the development of fully onchain games and its web3 SDK is in private beta.
Australian developer Illuvium has announced it’s raised an additional $10 million from previous lead investor Framework. This funding will help the team as it moves towards the open beta for its open-world experience Illuvium: Beyond. It’s also working on resource game Illuvium: Zero and autochess game Illuvium: Arena.
To-date, Illuvium has raised $15 million in formal VC funding — previously announcing a $5 million seed in March 2021 — but subsequently at least $130 million from various NFT and token sales.
US outfit Loot Labs has announced it’s raised a $1.5 million pre-seed for its Boxed.gg loot box platform. The round was led by Bitkraft with participation from Polygon Ventures, Mechanism Capital and Lofty Ventures Syndicate as well as streamer Hammoudi ‘Yassuo‘ Abdalrhman, who has 2 million Twitch followers.
Building on its work with TCG Royale, selling trading card mystery boxes, Loot Labs plans to launch NFT mystery boxes, which display the odds of unboxing each of the possible NFTs to provide high levels of transparency and fairness.
Loot Labs’ co-founders include CEO Milan Harris and CTO Matthew Genova, who previously were both involved in Cool Cats’ game initiative.
Web3 game developer BoomLand has announced the closing of a $1 million pre-seed round. Working on its debut title, mobile battle royale Hunters On-Chain which is currently on Polygon Mumbai’s testnet, BoomLand is set to launch the game on mainnet later in the summer 2023.
Among some of the investors were Polygon, Magic Eden, Game7 and Hyperithm.
Web3 gaming infrastructure platform Openfort has raised $3 million in a seed funding round. The startup aims to help game developers offer their players a seamless wallet experience through frictionless technology.
Openfort’s set of SDKs and APIs enables game studios to create and manage fully customizable on-chain accounts where players can enjoy games and applications without being familiar with the concept of wallets.
The round was co-led by by Gumi Cryptos and Maven 11. Among other investors were Pear VC, Game7, Newman Capital, Arcane and NGC, and more.
Web3 MOBA Arena of Faith has secured $1.75 million in a seed round led by ChainHill Capital, a digital asset investment group based in Asia.
In combination with Polygon, South Korean game publisher Neowiz has announced a $10 million gaming accelerator grant program for blockchain games that will use and expand its Intella X web3 gaming ecosystem, which runs on Polygon.
The program is designed to be simple to access via an online form, with applicants expected to get feedback within 2-4 weeks of their initial application. The process will run on a first-come, first-served basis, with no maximum or minimum grant size.
- April 2023
German blockchain tech investor Scytale Digital has announced an investment of $20 million into Mythical Games, the developer of Blankos Block Party, newly launched NFL Rivals and forthcoming title Nitro Nation: World Tour.
As part of the deal, Mythical Games will migrate its Mythical Chain to Polkadot as well as set up a Mythos ecosystem on the Polkadot network.
“In choosing Polkadot, Mythical Games now has a solid foundation of innovative and top performing tech to lean on and will be able to focus on what they are great at – games,” said Mark Cachia, founder and CIO of Scytale Digital.
Animoca brands subsidiary and a leading edtech platform for user-generated educational games, TinyTap, has announced it has raised $8.5 million.
Among the investors are Sequoia China, Liberty City Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Shima Capital, Polygon, GameFi Ventures, and others.
The funding will be used to enable TinyTap’s ambition of expanding its web2 platform into a web3 education system, and to accelerate development in the edtech space by supporting teachers and promoters alike.
“By pairing educational content creators with interested promoters, we are able to benefit all parties fairly and take a significant step in our goal to put the power of learning back in the hands of educators, students, and the community”, commented the CEO of TinyTap Yogev Shelly.
Games company SuperDuperSecret Co. has raised over $1 million in a pre-seed round. Among the many investors, Round 13 Digital, Merit Circle, Polygon, Solana, Overwolf, Big Brain Holdings, LD Capital, are included. Angels such as The Sandbox COO Sebastien Borget and Gabby Dizon (YGG) also invested.
SuperDuperSecret Co. is looking to debut with multiplayer battle royale game Royale Chess, with more multiplayer games expected down the line. Royale Chess: Elements is the company’s first NFT collection, which was launched via a free mint through Magic Eden on Solana in January 2023.
Swedish game developer Goals has secured a $20 million Series A funding round led by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six. Goals was founded in 2021 by Andreas Thorstensson, a former Counter-Strike World Champion and the founder of esports team SK Gaming. The funding will be used to develop the soccer game Goals, designed to appeal to both casual fans and aspiring esports professionals with its focus on fun, fast and fluid gameplay.
Other participants in the funding round include Northzone, Moonfire, and Cassius.
“Goals was born out of our passion for football, our passion for video games and our opinion that football video games have grown stale. There are over 3.5 billion football fans in the world, and our team is united in the belief that a football game done right should be the world’s biggest video game,” commented Torstensson.
Krafton and Naver Z have announced that they are investing $37 million (KRW 48 billion) into Migaloo. Previously this was Krafton’s metaverse project, but now it will become a joint venture based in North America.
First announced in 2022, Migaloo — a working title — is a “create-to-earn” project that will combine Krafton’s game expertise with Naver Z’s experience with the metaverse, social networks and IP partnerships.
India mobile game developer Mayhem Studios has announced it’s raised $20 million to build out its battle royale shooter Underworld Gang Wars and other titles.
The round was led by Sequoia India, with participation from Steadview Capital, Truecaller and ex-EA CCO Bing Gordon, now chief product officer at Kleiner Perkins.
Mayhem is owned by Indian real-money gaming and esports giant MPL, which itself has raised over $150 million and which operates over 60 mobile titles across sports and casino.
StarkWare has made a strategic investment in Unstoppable Games, the developer of space MMO Influence, to build on-chain games on Starknet, their layer 2 scaling technology.
“StarkWare’s equity investment in Unstoppable Games strengthens our alignment and reaffirms their confidence in the impact that gaming will have on Starknet’s growth. The investment will further our vision to build fully decentralized, on-chain games that are driven by the communities that support them”, says Chris Lexmond, the founder of Unstoppable games and creator of Influence.
- March 2023
Metaverse infrastructure outfit Hadean announced it has raised an additional $5 million to its initial funding round of $30 million.
Investors included Ericsson Ventures, Metrea Discovery, Sanctor Capital, Tirta Ventures and VU Venture Partners.
CCP Games has announced that it’s raised $40 million to make a blockchain game based in the EVE Online universe.
The round was led by a16z with participation from Makers Fund, Kingsway Capital, Nexon, Hashed and others. CCP Games is owned by South Korean publisher Pearl Abyss.
CCP recently stated it was interesting in blockchain technologies especially in terms of encouraging user-generated content and p2p marketplaces but it wouldn’t introduce the technology within EVE’s main Tranquility server.
- October 2022
Horizon Blockchain Games has announced a $40 million in Series A funding round.
The round was led by Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital, and included investments from traditional gaming companies Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive.
Berlin studio Mystic Games has announced a $1.3 million seed round which was led by Shima Capital and 32-Bit Ventures. Other investors included SevenX, TA Ventures, crypto exchange MEXC and angel Joe Mahon (YGG).
Founded by vets from King, Bigpoint and Voodoo, Mystic is working on mobile web3 rogue-like Call of the VoYd, which is currently live for gameplay testing in its genesis (non-NFT) version via Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
- December 2021
Yield Guild Gaming’s southeast Asia subDAO – YGG SEA – has announced it’s closed $15 million in seed funding.
Spread across two raises, the lead investors were YGG and Infinity Ventures Crypto in August, and Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, MindWorks Ventures, Poloniex, Jump Capital and Sembrani Kiqani by BRI Ventures in November.
Other investors included Circle, Digital Currency Group, Hashed, Polygon, Bukalapak, United Overseas Bank (UOB) Venture Management, Arca Funds, Evernew Capital, OKEx Blockdream Ventures, Yolo Ventures, SevenX Ventures, LongHash Ventures, Hashkey Group, Morningstar Ventures, Rise Capital, Dialectic, SweeperDAO, PetRock Capital, DNC Ventures, FBG Capital and Emfarsis.
YGG SEA will initially build its P2E operations in Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand, supporting locally developed play-to-earn games in each country and acquiring game assets for the benefit of the guild’s player base.
- November 2021
Veteran US blockchain game developer Blockade Games has raised $5 million on a $23 million valuation. It’s been working on its squad RPG Neon District since 2018 and has completed several seed rounds previously.
Animoca Brands and Digital led this round, with angels such as Drew Austin (Redbeard Ventures), Roham Gharegozlou (Dapper Labs), Keith Grossman (TIME) and Meltem Demirors (Coinshares) involved.
Other investors included Flamingo DAO and Galaxy Interactive, while existing investors Xsquared Ventures and Polygon also participated.
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Forte has raised $725 million in its Series B, taking its total raised to $900 million.
Sea Capital (the investment arm of Free Fire publisher Sea) and Kora Management led the round
Other investors included Animoca Brands, Big Bets (Huuuge Games), Overwolf, Playstudios, Warner Music Group, zVentures (Razer), and blockchain partners Cosmos, Polygon Studios, and Solana Ventures, as well as investors including Griffin Gaming Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Tiger Global.
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Mythical Games has closed a Series C funding round of $150 million on a $1.25 billion valuation.
The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, and includesd participation from D1 Capital, RedBird Capital, and The Raine Group, various US sports groups and existing investors.
Mythical has now raised $270 million for its blockchain gaming platform, which recently announced its first three development partners.
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US startup Faraway has announced it’s raised a $21 million Series A round. This takes its total funding to $30 million.
The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Pantera Capital and Jump Capital also participating.
Faraway’s debut game – a browser-based shooter called Mini Royale: Nations – is already live and will deploy with NFTs and tokens onto the Solana blockchain from December onwards.
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Uplandme has raised $18 million to scale its mobile blockchain game Upland.
The funding values the company at $300 million and was led by Animoca Brands, C3 Management, OneTeam Partners and Block.one.
- October 2021
NFT based sci-fi game Parallel has raised $50 million on a $500 million valuation, with Paradigm leading the round.
Existing investors such as Gabe Leydon, Polygon and NFTBigBrain also participated.
Parallel’s NFT trading volume is currently over $125 million, however, with the most expensive card selling for $1.1 million. Parallel takes 10% of every transaction, meaning the project has already raised $12.5 million in ETH.
The funding will enable it to build out its TCG design follows the conflict between five groups – or Parallels – of far future human evolution.
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Hash Rush developer Vorto Gaming has raised $4 million to build out its games and its platform ecosystem, which is based on the NEAR blockchain.
Investors included Flow Ventures; LD Capital; Block0 Fund, Daedalus Syndicate; NEAR Foundation and others including Red Cave Ventures; ArkStream Capital; GFS Ventures; Polygon Studios Fund as well as funds from UAE and Hong Kong.
Vorto Gaming also recently raised $100,000 via an NFT sale for Hash Rush, which is due for a full public launch in early 2022.
Animoca Brands has raised $65 million by issuing new shares on a $2.2 billion valuation. Earlier in 2021 it raised $139 million on a $1 billion valuation.
Investors in the round included Liberty City Ventures, Ubisoft Entertainment, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, Com2uS, Kingsway Capital, 10T Holdings, Token Bay Capital, Smile Group, Tess Ventures, MSA Capital, Octava Fund, Adit Ventures, Summer Capital, Sigitech Holdings, Black Anthem Ltd, Mirana Corp, and Justin Sun.
Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis has closed a $152 million Series B round, which values the company at $3 billion.
The lead investor was Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Accel, Paradigm, Seven Seven Six, FTX, Fabric, Samsung Next and other investors.
This takes Sky Mavis’ total funding from VCs to $161 million.
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- September 2021
Dapper Labs has raised $250 million on a $7.6 billion valuation.
The raise follows the $305 million it received in March 2021, taking Dapper’s total investment to $607 million.
Existing investors Coatue and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led the round with Google’s GV, Bond Capital and the Singapore government’s GIC investing for the first time.
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French developer Sorare has announced its $680 million Series B round for its fantasy soccer game.
The round was led by SoftBank, with the participation of Atomico, Bessemer Ventures, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP and Liontree, and existing investors.
The investment is the largest in the history of French technology and the largest in Europe for a Series B.
Sorare says it will use the cash to build out its team, expand to mobile as well as launching new games covering othere sports.
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US startup Stardust has raised a $5 million Series A round, which was led by Framework Ventures.
Other investors included Kleiner Perkins, Blockchain Capital, Distributed Global, Maven 11, G1.vc, OP Crypto, Redbeard Ventures, and Lattice Capital.
There were also angel investors including Piers Kicks of Delphi Digital, Gabby Dizon of Yield Games, Sebastien Borget of The Sandbox, and Nikil Viswanathan of Alchemy.
Stardust is a platform enabling game developers to create blockchain games across the likes of Polygon, Solana, Immutable X and Flow. It also offers easy fiat onboarding and multi-party wallets (via Fireblocks).
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Australian oufit Immutable has closed a $60 million Series B funding round.
It was co-led by Bitkraft Ventures and King River Capital.
Other companies participating included Prosus Ventures (previously Naspers), Galaxy Interactive, Fabric Ventures, Alameda Research, AirTree Ventures, Reinventure, Apex Capital, and Gary Vee’s VaynerFund.
Immutable will use the investment to scale its games Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians, as well as build out the ecosystem around its Immutable X platform, which uses StarkWare’s technology to provide a seemless L2 solution for Ethereum.
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UK-based Bitcoin payment platform Zebedee has raised $11.5 million.
The lead investor was Lakestar, with Initial Capital, New Form Capital and TVP participating.
Existing investors Collab+Currency, Cadenza Capital and Fulgur Ventures also invested, as did angels Hilmar Petursson, Chris Lee, Alexis Bonte, Timo Soininen and John Salter.
Zebedee using the Lightning Network to allow nanotransactions as low as 1 Satoshi.
- August 2021
Blockchain gaming community Yield Guild Gaming has raised $4.6 million finance round. This follows quickly from its $12.5 million YGG public token sale and a $4.5 million Series A.
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led the round, with Kingsway Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Atelier Ventures, and gaming entrepreneur Gabriel Leydon also participating.
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Thirdverse has raised $20 million in what it calls a combined Series A and B round.
The investment was led by its existing lead investor JAFCO with participation from previous investors Presence Capital, Sisu Ventures and Incubate Fund. Animoca Brands was the new investor for this round.
Based in Tokyo, Thirdverse is combining VR and blockchain. Its first game was Swords of Gargantua and it has two new games in development.
Planetarium has raised $2.6 million in what it calls a “growth round” to scale its idle PC game Nine Chronicles.
Animoca Brands and Divergence Ventures were the lead investors with IDEO CoLab, Sfermion, Hypersphere Ventures, SkyVision Capital and angels such as Axie Infinity co-founder Jeffrey Zirlin and Aave CEO Stani Kulechov also participating.
The investment will be used to scale the game, notably releasing a lite client for mobile and bridging the game’s NFTs and NCG cryptocurrency to Ethereum.
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Horizon Blockchain Games has raised $4.5 million in what it describes as a “pre-Series A round SAFE” investment.
Funders included Bitkraft Ventures, previous investor CMT Digital, The Xchange Company, Khaled Verjee and Zyshan Kaba.
Horizon previously raised $5 million in its seed round in 2019 and 2020.
Best-known for its Ethereum-based TCG SkyWeaver, which remains in beta, Horizon is also now pushing its Sequence blockchain tools, which include a crypto wallet.
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NFT marketplace OpenSea has raised $100 million in its Series B investment round.
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led the round. Coatue, along with Michael Ovitz, Kevin Hartz, Dylan Field, Kevin Durant, Ashton Kutcher, and Tobie Lutke also participated.
OpenSea raised $23 million back in March 2021, also led by Andreessen Horowitz. It has profited from the continual rise of NFT projects such as Meebits and Bored Ape Yacht Club on the Ethereum blockchain. OpenSea hosted $160 million of trading during June 2021, taking a 2.5% cut of all transactions.
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Animoca Brands has extended its recent funding with a further $50 million, taking that round to $138,888,888.
Investors included mobile games company Scopely, Razer’s zVentures, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, Coinbase Ventures and other Asian institutional funds.
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Blockchain esports platform Community Gaming has raised a $2.3 million seed round.
The US company will use the funds to expand its business into Latin America and South East Asia.
Investors included CoinFund, Dapper Labs, Animoca Brands, Play Ventures and Hashed.
Other significant participants included Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures, Mark Pincus’ WorkPlay Ventures, WhaleShark and Forte’s Kevin Chou.
Mythical Games has closed a Series B funding round of $75 million.
The round was led by WestCap. Also participating were 01 Advisors and Gary Vaynerchuk’s VaynerFund, and existing investors.
This takes Mythical’s total funding to $150 million.
Mythical’s first game – Blankos Block Party – is now in early access and its marketplace is in closed alpha testing. As well as scaling Blankos to other platforms including console, the investment will enable Mythical to build out its blockchain game platform, and release additional products.
Based in Seattle, Mythical now has more than 100 staff and is hiring.
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Blockchain gaming platform Forte has raised a $185 million Series A round.
Investors included Galaxy Interactive, Horizons Ventures, Iconiq Capital and Tencent.
Animoca Brands has raised $88,888,888 by issuing 93.4 million new shares. This values the company at $1 billion.
Investors included Kingsway Capital, RIT Capital Partners, HashKey Fintech Investment Fund, AppWorks Fund, LCV Fund, Huobi, Octava, Ellerston Capital, Perennial, Axia Infinity Ventures, SNZ, Liberty City Ventures, and Metapurse.
This takes Animoca Brands’ fundraising – via traditional VCs as well as token and NFT sales – to $106 million.
The new capital will be used to fund further acquisitions, develop new products, continue to make strategic investments, and secure additional IP licenses.
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Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis has raised $7.5 million in its Series A round from investors including US billionaire Mark Cuban.
Other investors included Blocktower Capital, Konvoy Ventures, Libertus, Collab + Currency’s Derek Schloss and Stephen McKeon.
Previously Sky Mavis has raised over $5 million from a series of token and VC funding events.
The company, which is based in Vietnam, has around 20 staff and expands to at least double its headcount in the coming months.
It’s currently building out the infrastructure behind Axie Infinity, with the launch of its own Ronin sidechain, which allows its Ethereum-based NFTs and tokens to be used without the high transaction fees currently experienced on the Ethereum mainnet.
- April 2021
Polyient Ventures has invested $500,000 into Infinite Fleet publisher Exordium.
The deal was part of Exordium’s security token offering, which has raised over $3.7 million.
Polyient has been active in the blockchain game space with investments into Gala Games and Neon District developer Blockade Games.
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Animoca Brands has raised $9.3 million from NFT sales in two games – The Sandbox and F1 Delta Time.
The Sandbox generated $5.9 million, paid via its SAND token by selling Land NFTs.
Some of these were sold directly at a fixed prices while others were sold at auction via OpenSea.
F1 Delta Time sold 300 NFTs which are parts of its officially licensed F1 racing tracks for $3.4 million, paid via its REVV token.
Both of these projects sold their NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, although they will also be available on other blockchains later in 2021.
- March 2021
Singapore-based outfit Enjin has announced its Efinity blockchain will now launch as a Polkadot parachain.
In conjunction, Enjin has announced a private sale of the EFI token, which raised $18.9 million.
The sale was led by Crypto.com Ventures, DFG Group and Hashed.
Other buyers included Blockchain.com Ventures, Arrington XRP Capital, Kenetic and an extensive list of other firms and individuals.
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Dapper Labs has announced a $305 million funding round, which was led by Coatue.
Other investors include more than 30 NBA, NFL, and MLB athletes, entertainment leaders, and cultural influencers — and includes participation from The Chernin Group, Andreessen Horowitz, Venrock, USV, and Version One.
Dacoco, the developer of Alien Worlds, has raised $2 million in a private sale of the game’s Trilium (TLM) token.
The idle mining game, which runs on the Wax blockchain, is currently the second most popular blockchain game in terms of daily active unique wallets.
Investors included Animoca Brands, Longling Capital, 3Commas and Digital Assets Group.
NFT marketplace OpenSea has announced a $23 million funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Other participants included previous investors as well as angels such as Mark Cuban, Naval Ravikant, Tim Ferris and Alexis Ohanian. You can read the full list here.
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Australian startup Illuvium has raised $5 million from Framework Ventures for its Unreal Engine game also called Illuvium.
Co-founded by Kieran and Aaron Warwick (the younger brothers of Synthetix founder Kane), the game has a strong DeFi component revolving around NFTs and passive income, and uses the Immutable X scaling solution.
The game is planned for release at the end of Q3 2021.
- February 2021
Fantasy soccer game Sorare has closed a $50 million Series A round, which was led by Benchmark Capital (Riot Games, Discord, Twitter).
Prominent players including Antoine Griezmann, Rio Ferdinand and Oliver Bierhoff also invested as did Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian.
It has previously raised $8 million.
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NFT lending platform NFTfi has raised $890,000 from a range of investors including Animoca Brands, which takes the role of strategic investor, CoinFund and angels such as Dapper Labs’ Roham Gharegozlou and The Sandbox’s Sebastien Borget.
- January 2021
Virtual world outfit IMVU has raised $35 million from Structural Capital and NetEase to rebrand as Together Labs.
It will also launch new mobile-focused project WithMe.
As with IMVU, the company’s new VCOIN cryptocurrency will be a key component of economic growth for users.
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South Korean outfit Planetarium has raised $2 million from Naver and other local VCs for its blockchain game platform, including PC RPG Nine Chronicles, which is currently in beta.
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Swedish developer Antler Interactive has raised $2.1 million from a range of investors to complete and launch its forthcoming PC game My Neighbor Alice.
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Polyient paid Gala Games $800,000 to acquire the Citadel of the Sun NFT from its forthcoming MMO Mirandus.
The Citadel of the Sun is a one-off legendary-tier NFT that will enable players to deposit and store in-game items.
Polyient previously invested in Blockade Games.
- December 2020
Paris-based Sorare has added $4.3 million to its seed round led by the Cassius Family fund. This take Sorare’s seed round to $9 million.
Barcelona player Gerard Pique, who also invested in the seed extension, will also join Sorare as a strategic advisor.
The Sandbox completed its 4.3 Land presale (including premium Smurfs content), raising around $450,000 in the process.
- November 2020
Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis raised $860,000 in a strategic token sale of its AXS governance token to existing investor and advisor Delphi Digital.
Delphi had previously acquired five Axie NFTs from the game’s marketplace for over $160,000.
- October 2020
Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis sold $3 million of its AXS token through Binance Launchpad.
Dapper Labs raised $18 million via a sale and an auction of Flow tokens on the Coinlist platform. The sale priced the Flow tokens at the $0.1 value of previous private sales, while the auction priced the tokens at $0.38.
This takes Dapper Labs total funding raised to $68 million.
Japanese startup Thirdverse (previously Yomuneco) has raised $8.5 million in its Series A to make VR games also using blockchain technology.
- August 2020
Prior to the open beta of the NBA Top Shot game on its Flow blockchain, Dapper Labs has raised $11.4 million. This takes its total raised to $50 million.
All previous investors participated, while new investors were Coinbase Ventures, Distributed Global, Valor Capital Group, A.Capital, BlockTower Capital, Blockchange Ventures, EONXI Ventures, Reed Company, Greenfield One, North Island Ventures, Republic Labs, L1 Digital AG and Pirata Capital.
A number of NBA players also invested: Andre Iguodala (Miami Heat), Spencer Dinwiddie and Garrett Temple (Brooklyn Nets), JaVale McGee (Los Angeles Lakers), and Aaron Gordon (Orlando Magic).
The Sandbox developer Pixowl (part of Animoca Brands) has announced a $3 million hard capped public sale of its SAND ERC20 token through Binance Launchpad.
Fantasy soccer game Sorare raises a $4 million seed round, lead by e.ventures. It plans to double both team-size and the number of clubs under license.
Animoca Brands raises $4.1 million, from strategic investors including M7 Asia and Mind Fund. It’s now raised a total of $18 million.
DMarket raises $6.5 million, from Almaz Capital and Xsolla, adds Trip Hawkins to board. It’s now raised a total of $26 million.
- April 2020
Ember Sword dev Bright Star raises $700,000, from Play Ventures and Galaxy Interactive
- March 2020
Horizon Blockchain Games raises $5 million, from Initialized Capital and others. It’s now raised a total of $9 million.
- February 2020
CryptoDozer dev SuperTree raises $2.5 million
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- November 2019
Blankos Block Party dev Mythical Games raises $19 million, from Javelin Venture Partners and others. It’s now raised a total of $35 million.
Onboarding tech Bitski raises $3.5 million, from Galaxy Digital, Coinbase and others
Axie Infinity dev Mavis Sky raises $1.5 million, from Hashed and Animoca Brands
- September 2019
Dapper Labs raises $11 million, from Andreessen Horowitz and others. It’s now raised a total of $26 million.
DappRadar raises $2.3 million, from Naspers Ventures and Blockchain Ventures
SkyWeaver dev Horizon Blockchain Games raises $3.75 million, from Initialized and others
Check out our Top 50 Blockchain Game Companies list here.
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