Boardroom’s latest Metaverse VC Roundup also includes fundraising updates from Chiru Labs, Immortal Game, and more.
Web3 gaming investments are still getting the most venture capital attention.
Blockchain gaming and metaverse projects have brought in nearly $750 million in capital since August, according to a DappRadar report. This is especially worthy to note since the crypto market is still experiencing a downturn.
In the latest edition of Boardroom’s biweekly Metaverse VC Roundup, we highlight investments from startups working on fan engagement, gaming, NFTs, crypto analytics, and more.
Subscribe for the biggest stories in the business of sports and entertainment, daily.
Fabric: $4 Million for Web3 fan engagement
Geospatial web platform Fabric raised $4 million, including a $1.9 million seed investment led by Sapir Venture Partners.
Fabric’s artificial intelligence-powered platform delivers sports and entertainment fans real-time augmented reality, social, blockchain, and gaming experience, and notably requires a 3D jumbotron-style setup for fans to interact with it. The company was founded in 2018 with a mission to inspire event-goers to look to the space around them for interaction rather than straight down at their phones.
Fabric is currently working on securing contracts with various professional sports organizations to bring new experiences to its users.
“Technology has made our lives fast and frictionless, but also transactional,” Sarah Kass, founder and President of Fabric, said in a statement. “Fabric is building the geospatial web–technology that enables real-time, location-specific, interactive social experiences – to incorporate our shared time and place within our digital worlds. We are making the transactional, interactional.”
Chiru Labs: $30 Million for Azuki NFTs
Azuki NFT platform creator Chiru Labs is closing in on a $30 million Series A, valuing the company between $300 million and $400 million.
The rumored funding raise generated chatter on Twitter, and three sources familiar with the company’s fundraising efforts later confirmed it. Chiru Labs describes its work as quite literally building the metaverse, and is currently best known for creating the Azuki non-fungible token community, a collection of 10,000 sideways-facing anime characters decked out with various moods, accessories, and weapons.
Immortal Game: $15.5 Million for Web3 chess platform
Paris-based Immortal Game raised $15.5 million across two rounds to transform the classic chess game into a Web3 game powered by NFTs.
This seems like a great idea, as global interest in online chess continues to grow. Immortal Game is working to modernize the trend and expanding its platform to include play-to-earn rewards, quests, and a marketplace.
The Web3 startup designs everything down to the chess pieces that represent the traditional ones from the board game; some pieces are NFTs with varying rarity levels which can be traded for ETH on Immortal Game’s marketplace. The platform releases 30 new chess pieces per day and has generated 200 ETH in transaction volume, TechCrunch reports. The company brings in about 5,000 active players weekly from its pool of 50,000 total registered players.
Gamers can access the beta version of Immortal Game’s platform here.
Messari: $35 Million for crypto data and analytics
Crypto data firm Messari closed a $35 million Series B round led by Brevan Howard Digital. The new infusion now pegs the firm at an estimated valuation of $300 million.
Morgan Creek Digital, Samsung Next, FTX Ventures, Galaxy, and Coinbase Ventures are among some of the other investors that participated in the round. Messari announced the funding raise at its Mainnet 2022 summit and said the capital will be used to expand its team and develop more offerings.
“We are committed to providing investors, crypto enterprises, and token communities with the tools they need to participate in the crypto economy,” Messari Cofounder and CEO Ryan Selkis said in an official news release. “This new funding will help us grow our team, expand internationally, and invest in new data offerings and tools that complete our market-leading product suite.”
More Investments
- London-based Hadean raised a $30 million Series A to build out its metaverse infrastructure technology.
- Solar-powered Bitcoin miner Aspen Creek Digital Corporation raised an $8 million Series A led by Galaxy Digital and Polychain Capital.
- Automated crypto trading bot platform 3Commas closed a $37 million Series B led by Target Global, Alameda Research, Jump Crypto, and Copper founder Dmitry Tokarev.
- Web3 accounting software Tres raised $7.6 million from Boldstart Ventures to build a premiere financial data lake for Web3 companies.
- Play-to-earn gaming startup Vulcan Forged raises $8 million to build its flagship metaverse game.
Read More:
- Boardroom Launches Exclusive Members Club
- 2025 MIT Sloan Conference: Evolving Fandom, Women’s Sports, AI, & More
- SXSW’s Evolving Landscape: The Shifting Focus of a Cultural Icon
- Jemele Hill on the Intersection of Sports & Politics
- Don Garber Continues to ‘Break Glass’ as MLS Commissioner
Subscribe for the biggest stories in the business of sports and entertainment, daily.