Evan Spytma, CEO and co-founder of YGG SEA
Philippine company Yield Guild Games Southeast Asia (YGG SEA), the regionally focused sub-DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) owned by YGG, has raised US$15 million over two rounds of funding.
The seed round of investment, which took place in August, was led by the parent company and Infinity Ventures Crypto, said a statement.
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. Other co-investors are Circle, Digital Currency Group, Hashed, Polygon, Bukalapak, UOB Venture Management, Arca Funds, Evernew Capital, OKEx Blockdream Ventures, Yolo Ventures, SevenX Ventures, LongHash Ventures, Hashkey Group, Morningstar Ventures, Rise Capital, Dialectic, SweeperDAO, PetRock Capital, DNC Ventures, FBG Capital and Emfarsis.
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The funding will enable YGG SEA to deliver a targeted offering to the regional gaming community.
The guild will initially focus on Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand. It will support locally developed play-to-earn games in each country and acquire game assets to benefit the guild’s player base.
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.
Southeast Asia represents over 700 million people from 11 countries. It is also one of the most active crypto regions globally. In November, four of the top 10 countries for Metamask wallet usage were in the region. Much of this activity was driven by Axie Infinity and other play-to-earn games to supplement income during the pandemic.
“Demand for play-to-earn gaming is rising fast in many countries, and Southeast Asia is an incredibly diverse region. It’s critical to have teams like ours, with boots on the ground and an understanding of the local needs and cultural nuances, who can build the regional community from the ground up,” said Evan Spytma, CEO and co-founder of YGG SEA.
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“Supporting contender brands and the ecosystem is the heart of Sembrani Kiqani. With so many people in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, wanting to enter the metaverse, it was natural for us to partner with YGG SEA,” said Marcel Lukman, founding Partner of Sembrani Kiqani.
Sembrani Kiqani is a fund launched by BRI Ventures that targets early-stage startups in the direct-to-consumer sector.
YGG is a decentralised gaming guild that pools investor funds to purchase yield-generating NFTs and leverages players’ time and effort to optimise its community-owned assets for maximum utility and return. Merging NFTs and decentralised finance (DeFi), YGG aims to create value for its members by developing the content and economy of virtual worlds and blockchain-based games.
In July, YGG announced that it sold 25 million of its native YGG cryptocurrency tokens in just 31 seconds and raised about US$12.5 million in USD Coin.
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Image Credit: YGG SEA
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