Who would have imagined Vietnamese blockchain game developer Sky Mavis to become a unicorn within just three years of starting up? No one. Not even the founders or its investors.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), metaverse, and Web3 were the definite trends of 2021. Many companies operating in these domains attracted eyeballs and investors’ attention. These verticals will continue to take centre stage as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc worldwide.
We bring you a list of companies in the NFTs/Web3/Metaverse segments that drew attention in 2021.
Sky Mavis (Axie Infinity)
Sky Mavis was founded in early 2018 by Aleksander Leonard Larsen, Nguyễn Thành Trung, Đoàn Minh Tú, Hồ Sỹ Việt Anh and Jeffrey Samuel Kim Zirlin. It is the creator of Axie Infinity, a popular NFT-based play-to-earn (P2E) game where players breed, battle, and trade digital pets called Axie.
NFT-based P2E games are decentralised, meaning that the players own the in-game assets that they purchase and can generate real-world rewards for their in-game activities. Axie Infinity says it has helped create income-generating opportunities for underserved people worldwide; 25 per cent of players are unbanked, and 50 per cent have not previously used cryptocurrencies.
Axie Infinity has amassed players worldwide, with more than 1.8 million daily active users logging into the platform in August. It claims to have achieved US$33 million in everyday transactions, for a total volume of over US$2 billion.
In October, the Vietnamese company scored US$152 million in a Series B financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Accel Partners and Paradigm also joining. This followed a US$7.5 million Series A funding in May, led by Libertus Capital. Previously, Sky Mavis raised US$1.5 million from several backers such as Animoca Brands, Hashed, Pangea Blockchain Fund, Consensys, and 500 Startups Vietnam.
As per the Crunchbase data, Sky Mavis is already a unicorn.
Yield Guild Games Southeast Asia
Led by CEO and co-founder Evan Spytma and co-founders Dan Wang and Irene Umar, YGG SEA is an official sub-DAO of YGG, which launched as a decentralised autonomous organisation in July 2021. YGG SEA leverages the parent’s infrastructure and assets to serve communities within the region to join the metaverse through localised investment, education and on-the-ground services.
So far, YGG SEA has helped more than 2,500 players and investors in the region to generate additional revenue streams, including over 600 in Thailand. The regional guild plans to increase the customer base to about 10,000 by 2022.
In December, the Philippine company announced raising US$15 million over two rounds of funding. The seed round, which took place in August, was led by the parent company and Infinity Ventures Crypto. The additional funding, which came in November, was led by Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, MindWorks Ventures, Poloniex, Jump Capital and Sembrani Kiqani by BRI Ventures.
Sipher
Founded by prominent Vietnamese entrepreneur Nguyen Trung Tin (CEO), Sipher aims to unify state-of-the-art blockchain tech, artwork, storytelling, multiplayer gaming with decentralised financial technologies. Its vision is to create an expansive world that attracts and keeps the player base engaged for years to come as new worlds, characters and factions are introduced.
Sipher intends to create an ecosystem where people can play for fun while earning rewards for their time spent in-game. It also provides the community with ownership of in-game assets, which directly contributes to the growth and success of the gaming industry.
In October, Sipher announced the closing of a US$6.8 million financing round, co-led by Arrington Capital, Hashed and Konvoy Ventures. Defiance Capital, Signum Capital, Dragonfly Capital, CMT Digital, BITKRAFT Ventures, Delphi Digital, Alameda Research, Fenbushi Capital, Sfermion, Hyperchain, GBV, Kyber Network, Coin98 Ventures, YGG and Merit Circle also participated.
GuildFi
GuildFi is a Thai startup that aims to create an ecosystem that connects the intricate jigsaws of the metaverse. It develops a Web3 infrastructure to connect games, NFTs, and communities to maximise players’ benefits and enable interoperability across the metaverse.
GuildFi looks to develop new features such as:
- GuildFi ID: a metaverse ID that is embedded with a levelling system that tracks players’ achievement and footprint across the metaverse. Players receive engagement points and ranking, which translate into the rewards they deserve,
- Game discovery: it helps players discover curated games and game creators discover the right player base for their game launch,
- Proof-of-Play Rewards: it enables play-to-earn on any games by analysing your lifetime activities and giving out the right benefits to you whether it’s an allocation to an NFT campaign or a bonus yield from our tokens,
- Metadrop Launchpad: it offers a special NFT and token deal from its partners where an allocation is determined by players’ ranks.
- GameFi tools: They enhance players’ performance by providing gaming tools, for instance, the Axie Infinity toolkit that features scholarship management, daily SLP shares, PvP simulation, team status, and card explorer.
- Scholarship portal: it offers a built-in scholarship programme provided by GuildFi’s treasury and guild partners, reducing the barrier to entry for play-to-earn games and unlocking the opportunity for players anywhere in the world.
To achieve this mission, GuildFi will collaborate with game creators globally to identify and attract the right players while supporting them through in-game asset investment and campaign collaboration to ensure successful launches and healthy growth.
In November, the startup completed a US$6 million seed round of financing, co-led by Singapore-based crypto-asset fund DeFiance Capital and South Korean early-stage VC firm Hashed. Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, Play Ventures, SkyVision Capital, Coin98 Ventures, and other notable investors also co-invested.
OFF
OFF was co-founded by three crypto-natives, including Jinwoo Park (co-founder of South Korean crypto-asset investment firm Hashed).
OFF’s goal is to create an open ecosystem for avatar-based micro verses, and its first product is an NFT-based social metaverse platform, called MYTY.
MYTY is a decentralised social platform where people can escape the limitations of the physical world using NFT avatars. Its MYTY Camera app converts CryptoPunks NFT into avatars. It enables users to show up as the visuals of their own NFT avatars in Discord, Zoom, and other webcam-based applications.
OFF is currently working on “Ghosts Project”, the first collection of NFT avatars designed in partnership with MrMisang, the top artist in SuperRare. Ghosts Project, which is a prequel to MrMisang’s original series Modern Life is Rubbish, is being optimised for face tracking and motion tracking. It is designed to show the full capacity of MYTY’s avatars full-body tracking, including nodding, raising hands, and various emotional expressions.
GhostsProject is currently building Twittxer and Discord communities and planning an NFT avatar sale. Ghosts will be supported by MYTY Camera after the sales.
In November, OFF announced a US$3.5 million seed funding round co-led by Hashed and Collab+Currency. The round also saw the participation of BITKRAFT Ventures, Electric Capital, Coinbase Ventures and SamsungNEXT.
Fantico
Fantico is a digital collectible platform catering to celebrated movies, artists, musicians, and sports for the Indian market. A portfolio company of Singapore-based diversified media and entertainment firm Vistas Media Capital, it builds its own version of metaverse, dubbed VistaVerse.
VistaVerse consists of virtual land, blockchain games, curated and user-generated experiences, and an NFT marketplace. It will be launched in the coming months with premium curated experiences, including from top Indian celebrities.
The marketplace has already been launched, focusing on both crypto and non-crypto user bases with marquee items to pique the interests of both segments.
The metaverse firm will leverage the parent company’s content, such as movies, music, and gaming resources, to build an experience-first approach.
In December, Fantico raised an undisclosed sum in a private financing round from Animoca Brands. Individuals, including Hemant Tucker, segment head for technopreneurs and market head (South Asia & Middle East) at Bank of Singapore, also joined the round.
Cosmic Guild
Cosmic Guild is a play-to-earn (P2E) community of gamers. The startup has run scholarships in Axie Infinity to incentivise players. The one-month-old startup operates as a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) focused on maximising yield and building communities.
Currently, the community-first guide provides NFT assets for more than 600 scholars and is said to reinvest the earnings into breeding more Axies and growing its pool of scholars.
The team believes that P2E games will increase in complexity and skill requirements. The meta changes from time to time in all games, challenging both the managers and players to rethink strategies and deploy capital constantly.
As a result, Cosmic Guild holds a portfolio of NFT game assets of crypto games loaned to guild members who can play using the NFTs and earn yields on games.
In December, it secured US$1.5 million in seed funding led by Binance Labs, the VC and incubation arm of Binance. Co-investors include DeFiance Capital, Alameda Research, and Play Ventures.
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