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Boardroom is a sports, media and entertainment brand co-founded by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman and focused on the intersection of sports and entertainment. Boardroom’s flagship media arm features premium video/audio, editorial, daily and weekly newsletters, showcasing how athletes, executives, musicians and creators are moving the business world forward. Boardroom’s ecosystem encompasses B2B events and experiences (such as its renowned NBA and WNBA All-Star events) as well as ticketed conferences such as Game Plan in partnership with CNBC. Our advisory arm serves to consult and connect athletes, brands and executives with our broader network and initiatives.

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Boardroom’s sister company, Boardroom Sports Holdings, features investments in emerging sports teams and leagues, including the Major League Pickleball team, the Brooklyn Aces, NWSL champions Gotham FC, and MLS’ Philadelphia Union.

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Metaverse VC Roundup: NFT Platform Company Exclusible Nabs $5M

Last Updated: January 11, 2024
Boardroom’s latest Metaverse VC Roundup also includes fundraising updates from Mercury, Stardust, and more.

Web3 venture capital activity has slowed a bit in recent weeks, but there are still lots of dollars rolling into the market.

The latest edition of Boardroom’s biweekly Metaverse VC Roundup includes investments in Web3 startups working on NFT platforms, fan experiences, gaming tools, and more.

Exclusible: $5M For Luxury Brand NFT Platform

NFT platform Exclusible closed a $5 million funding round to expand its team and build out its product offerings. The round was led by Dan Holzmann, co-owner of Swiss football club FC Basel, and Tioga Capital.

Exclusible was founded in October 2021. The company helps luxury brands digitize their products and create NFT collections. Exclusible will use a portion of its new funding to build its Web3 customer relationship management product.

Aside from raising fresh capital, Lisbon-based Exclusible also acquired Polycount, a metaverse development studio that has worked with big brands such as the NBA, OpenSea, and McDonald’s.

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Mercury: $7.5M For Fan Experiences

Mercury closed a $7.5 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital with participation from North Island Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Brevan Howard Digital, and others. The company will use the capital to expand its leadership team.

Mercury is a fan experience company that supports student-athletes and college sports programs. The company is working to bring fans closer to their favorite collegiate athletic teams through digital experiences.

This deal comes after Mercury announced that it signed NIL deals with over 70 athletes at the University of Kentucky.

Stardust: $30M For Web3 Gaming Tools

Stardust, a provider of development tools to build blockchain games, raised a $30 million Series A led by Framework Ventures.

The crypto gaming infrastructure platform company in is working to bridge the gap between Web2 gamers and Web3 games. Stardust works with game publisher Tilting Point to help their developers build blockchain games, but its suite of tools is available to all game developers. The company said its mission is to become the “Coinbase of Web3 games.”

More Investments

  • Blockchain startup Shardeum closed an $18 million seed round from 50 investors, including Struck Crypto and the Spartan Group.
  • Decentralized protocol Uniswap has hit a $1.66 billion valuation after closing a $165 million funding round.
  • Solana infrastructure startup Helius closed a $3.1 million seed round led by Reciprocal Ventures and Chapter One, with participation from Solana Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, Big Brain Ventures, Propel VC, and more.
  • The Funky Wolves NFT project closed an undisclosed angel investment round, boosting its valuation to $5 million.

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Michelai Graham

Michelai Graham is Boardroom's resident tech and crypto reporter. Before joining 35V, she was a freelance reporter with bylines in AfroTech, HubSpot, The Plug, and Lifewire, to name a few. At Boardroom, Michelai covers Web3, NFTs, crypto, tech, and gaming. Off the clock, you can find her producing her crime podcast, The Point of No Return.

About The Author
Michelai Graham
Michelai Graham
Michelai Graham is Boardroom's resident tech and crypto reporter. Before joining 35V, she was a freelance reporter with bylines in AfroTech, HubSpot, The Plug, and Lifewire, to name a few. At Boardroom, Michelai covers Web3, NFTs, crypto, tech, and gaming. Off the clock, you can find her producing her crime podcast, The Point of No Return.