Funding Wrap: Gaming startups still a hot topic for venture capitalists

Funding Wrap: Gaming startups still a hot topic for venture capitalists

Play-to-earn gaming companies and services remain popular with investors looking to inject money into the crypto space.

Most recently, Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) invested $6 million in Web3 startup Halliday, which enables its gaming clientele to buy and use digital assets in the metaverse. Hashed, a_capital, SV Angel and other investors also participated in the financing.

In one Blog entry Akshay Malhotra and Griffin Dunaif, co-founders of Halliday, wrote: “We are grateful that some of the best supporters in the world share our passion for what we are building.”

Vance Spencer, co-founder of Framework Ventures, told Blockworks that gaming startups remain a popular investment for investors because three billion people in the world play games and half a billion people earn less than $5 a day but have an internet connection.

“There is a huge latent market for play-to-earn games,” Spencer said.

Outside of gaming, crypto funding has been quieter than usual over the past week, but investors are still committed to startups building in this space.

Most notably, Brevan Howard Asset Management has raised over $1 billion from institutional investors to launch the largest crypto hedge fund ever.

The European hedge fund was previously wary of the crypto space and leaned toward caution ahead of the bear market. Its recent increase implies that the fund will soon play a much more active role in supporting the development of cryptocurrency startups.

XION Finance, a decentralized farming protocol on the BNB and Gnosis chains, announced in a statement that it has received a $50 million investment commitment from Bahamas-based GEM Digital Limited, a digital asset investment firm that claims to have invested in over 30 utility tokens worldwide.

The company plans to use the funds to “enable everyday users to earn high returns, swap assets across multiple chains, and invest in tier-one projects,” Ronan Quarmby, founder of XION Finance and CEO of XION Global, said in the statement.

GEM Digital has also committed $25 million to Geeq, a multi-blockchain platform that uses a patent-pending blockchain consensus mechanism.

“With GEM’s capital commitment, we are ready to bring companies and individuals into the Metaverse and Web3,” Geeq CEO Ric Asselstine said in a statement.

GEM Digital's parent company, GEM Capital, claims it is "a $3.4 billion alternative investment group that manages a diverse range of investment vehicles focused on emerging markets around the world."

Other venture rounds this week include:

• EtherMail, eine Web3-E-Mail-Lösung oder anonyme und verschlüsselte Wallet-to-Wallet-Kommunikation, sicherte sich eine Startkapitalerhöhung von 3 Millionen US-Dollar, angeführt von Fabric Ventures und Greenfield One
• Das von einem ehemaligen Coinbase-Mitarbeiter gegründete Blockchain-Daten-Startup Coherent sicherte sich 4,5 Millionen US-Dollar von der Foundry Group
• Das Play-to-Earn-Startup Skrmiish sammelte einen Seed von 2,5 Millionen US-Dollar, angeführt von Launch Africa.
• Bits, eine Krypto-Investitions-App für Kleingeld mit einem ähnlichen Konzept wie Acorns, sammelte einen Pre-Seed von 1,2 Millionen US-Dollar unter der Leitung von HOF Capital.
• Das estnische Blockchain-Analytics-Startup Cookie3 sicherte sich eine Seed-Runde in Höhe von 2,5 Millionen US-Dollar von The Spartan Group.

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The article Funding Wrap: Gaming Startups Still a Hot Item for Venture Capitalists is not financial advice.