Boardroom’s latest metaverse VC roundup also includes fundraising updates from Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, Animoca Brands Japan, Ready Player Me, and more.
We’re well into Q3 of the year, and Web3 investments are ramping up after a few quiet months.
Gaming startups and crypto funds are leading the charge on investment deals on the Web3 marketplace, but many dollars have flowed into the bustling industry lately.
Here are some of the latest Web3 venture capital deals for Boardroom’s biweekly Metaverse VC Roundup.
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PROOF: $50M for Ecosystem Expansion
After raising an unexpected $10 million earlier this year from Seven Seven Six, PROOF closed a $50 million Series A funding round.
The mastermind behind Moonbirds and PROOF Collective NFTs is preparing to drop its next non-fungible token collection: Moonbird Mythics. Andreessen Horowitz led PROOF’s Series A round with participation from Seven Seven Six, True Ventures, Collab+Currency, Flamingo DAO, SV Angel, and VaynerFund. The company made the funding announcement during a live-streamed community event on Tuesday.
Here’s the latest on how PROOF is expanding its ecosystem:
- The company is launching a social platform to connect its followers, showcase collections, and enable community decision-making. The platform will also share research, podcasts, and DAO proposals. The PROOF social platform will beta launch soon.
- PROOF announced that new PROOF Collective NFTs will launch three times a year, and there will be members-only mint events.
- The Moonbirds DAO is in development. The organization will oversee Moonbirds licensing, capital deployment, and PROOF’s treasury.
- PROOF is building a business development team focused on partnerships.
- The PROOF token is in the early stages of development, with more details to come next year.
PROOF’s next collection, Moonbird Mythics, will include 20,000 PFP NFTs and is expected to launch early 2023. The company also announced that Moonbirds collections would be fully on-chain moving forward.
Seven Seven Six is Launching a $177.6M Crypto Fund
Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six venture capital firm plans to raise a $177.6 million fund called Kryptós to invest in early-stage Web3 startups and cryptocurrencies.
Kryptós is set to begin operations in October, which means Seven Seven Six must be close to raising the capital it’s seeking.
Seven Seven Six supports nearly 60 portfolio companies, including Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs, PROOF, Doodles, Invisible Universe, and NWSL club Angel City FC.
Limit Break: $200M for Free-to-Own Web3 Games
NFT creator and Web3 gaming firm Limit Break raised $200 million in a funding round led by Buckley Ventures, Standard Crypto, and Paradigm Ventures.
The company plans to use the capital to build its “free-to-own” gaming model and develop blockchain-based games. FTX, Coinbase Ventures, Anthos Capital, SV Angel, and Shervin Pishevar also participated in the funding round.
“Free-to-Play gaming is ending, and Limit Break is coming to replace it,” company founder Gabriel Leydon said in a statement. “People talk about Web 3 gaming like a futuristic inevitability; it’s not. It requires people to properly design and build it. And those people work at Limit Break.”
Launched in August 2021, Limit Break dropped its inaugural NFT collection, DigiDaigaku, free of charge. Since the firm announced its latest funding raise, the floor price for DigiDaigaku NFTs rose over 100% to 14.2 ETH (roughly $22,170).
Animoca Brands Japan: $45M to Boost NFT Ecosystem
Animoca Brands Japan raised $45 million from its parent company, Animoca Brands, and Japan’s largest bank, MUFG Bank, to work on its local Web3 efforts.
Animoca Brands Japan will use the capital to secure licenses to use Japanese anime and manga intellectual properties to promote the adoption of Web3 further. Per an official news release, Animoca Brands Japan will also work with MUFG on other NFT-related business opportunities.
New Web3 and Blockchain Gaming Deals
Gaming companies are on a roll with the money deals. Here are some more recent significant investments in the Web3 and blockchain gaming spaces.
- The Sandbox invested $1.7 million in INDEX GAME, a Hong Kong-based metaverse agency. The pair will create play-to-earn games and build metaverse infrastructures.
- Will Wright, the acclaimed designer behind SimCity and The Sims, raised $6 million for his independent gaming studio, Gallum Studios. The funds will be used for the company’s Web3 work, including developing simulation games powered by blockchain technology.
- Blockchain gaming company Xterio raised $40 million in a funding round led by FTX Ventures, FunPlus, Makers Fund, and XLPA. The company plans to use the funds to develop Web3 game franchises.
- Metaverse avatar platform company Ready Player Me closed a $56 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company partners with more than 3,000 gaming companies and applications to allow users to take their avatars to any virtual landscape they please.
- One-year-old Inworld AI raised $50 million to develop its flagship platform. The tech would allow developers to create AI virtual characters for use in video game worlds and the metaverse.
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New Crypto Funds
- New York-based Koop, a company that built an Ethereum-based platform for creators to fundraiser through NFTs and collector passes, raised $5 million. Koop can be compared to the likes of Patreon.
- Executives from leading crypto investment and trading firms Galaxy Digital and Genesis are raising a $500 million crypto fund.
- Global investment management firm Invesco is launching the Invesco Metaverse Fund to invest in Web3 companies across various industries. The fund will also invest in virtual and augmented reality-focused projects, too.
- Orange DAO raised $80 million in funding after only seeking $10 million from investors. Orange DAO’s inaugural venture fund plans to invest in Y Combinator projects.
- Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal and Cere Network’s Kenzi Wang teamed up to launch a $50 million Web3 fund. The fund plans to invest in Web3 applications, crypto protocols, exchanges, auditing firms, and crypto vendors.
More Investments
- Sei, a Layer 1 blockchain system optimized for the decentralized finance industry, announced a $5 million funding round led by Multicoin Capital with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Delphi Digital, and more.
- Spectral, a Web3 credit scoring infrastructure startup, raised $23 million to continue building its tech that could identify decentralized credit scores.
- Polygon Studios made an undisclosed investment in MintStarts, an NFT subscription platform built on the Polygon blockchain.
- Web3 messaging app Comm closed a $5 million seed round led by CoinFund. To compete with Discord, Comm is building a messaging app that allows users to host their backend servers and manage their own data.
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