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Singapore-based decentralized Web3 gaming IP Pixelmon has raised an $8 million seed round with the backing of Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming developer Animoca Brands and several other investors.
According to an announcement, the round included participation from Delphi Ventures, Ember Group, Bing Ventures, Bitscale Capital, Cypher Capital, Foresight Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Sepharmian, Spartan Labs, Vista Labs, Ampharis and others.
Pixelmon is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) designed for Web3. Developed by LiquidX Studios, it encourages players to own NFTs that have fractional IP benefits, allowing holders of these NFTs to gain ownership rights over a portion of an item or character’s IP.
The startup offers ownership of IP and in-game assets through its IP fractionalization system called MON Protocol.
“The decentralized IP system that Mon Protocol is establishing is important because it allows creative communities and IP core fan bases to actively participate in the long-term success of consumer franchises,” said Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca. Will empower you.” Brand.
The startup said it will use the fresh funding to continue development of casual and mid-core games.
The funding follows the launch of Kevin the Adventurer (KTA), Pixelmon’s first hypercasual game. Deployed on Coinbase’s native Layer 2, Base, in October 2023, the side-scroller attracted 36,000 active players and 10,100 hours played in its launch month.
According to the announcement, the second hypercasual game, PixelPals, which blends pet and habitat management with trading card mechanics, is set to launch on the Mental Network in the first quarter of 2024.
Pixelmon is led by Giulio Ziloyannis, co-founder and CEO of LiquidX. Ziloyanis was part of the founding team of Zalora, a Southeast Asian online fashion retailer.
Ziloyanis said, “The support we have received is a testament to the fact that Pixelmon has truly ‘resurrected’ from its tumultuous beginnings and is a testament to Web3’s tireless effort to make this industry successful “
Earlier in March 2022, Pixelmon raised $70 million in NFT sales, but it faced challenges as its NFT project was criticized due to poor art that did not reflect the project’s original teaser.
Today, the startup said it has more than 25,000 unique NFT holders, with more than 60,000 wallets on-chain engaged in its NFT collections and minigames.
Web3 venture investment began to accelerate in mid-2023 after a significant decline in 2022.
In August last year, Singapore-based Web3 virtual world and creator platform ZTX had announced raising $13 million in its seed funding round led by Jump Crypto, the cryptocurrency arm of proprietary trading firm Jump Trading.
Animoca Brands and Japanese trading and investment company Mitsui & Co. also formed a partnership last year to create a new business that will explore the Web3 market in Japan.
Source: www.dealstreetasia.com
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