Immutable Raises $15 Million in Series A Funding
Immutable, a company that builds video games with player-owned assets, has raised a $15 million Series A round led by Naspers Ventures, part of Naspers, a global internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world, and Galaxy Digital EOS VC Fund, a $325 million ecosystem development fund run by blockchain-focused merchant bank Galaxy Digital. Apex Capital Partners also participated in the round. The Immutable team will use the funds to accelerate the development of their flagship game, Gods Unchained, a trading card game led by Chris Clay, the former director of Magic The Gathering: Arena. Gods Unchained made waves last year as the world’s highest grossing blockchain-powered video game. Funds will also be used to build out the Immutable Platform, an open-source blockchain toolkit that lets developers create “immutable assets,” or truly ownable in-game items like cards, skins, weapons, and more, for their third-party games.
Immutable’s use of blockchain technology unlocks a whole new class of digital assets, one which holds real-world value and can be freely exchanged on peer-to-peer marketplaces. Players can buy, sell, and gift their in-game items such as cards, skins, swords, and more, and extract value from the time they spend gaming.
Sam Englebardt, Co-Founder and Co-Head of Principal Investments at Galaxy Digital said, “True ownership of digital objects reflects the next paradigm for interactive content by aligning the long-term incentives of publishers, developers, creators, and players. We’re investing broadly in the studios that are best executing on this vision across a variety of video game genres and Gods Unchained is in a class by itself amongst trading card games. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Immutable.”
“Naspers Ventures partners with innovative entrepreneurs in high-growth markets across the globe and we recognize the potential that blockchain technology has to radically transform most industries in the future, including gaming. We believe tremendous economic value can be unlocked in digital worlds using blockchain technology to bring true digital asset ownership to games, building upon a decades-old ecosystem,” said Banafsheh Fathieh, Principal and Early Stage Investment Lead at Naspers Ventures.
Immutable, formerly known as Fuel Games, raised a seed round last year led by Continue Capital and Nirvana Capital, and also included Sora Ventures and US digital currency exchange Coinbase. Their first game, Gods Unchained, is still in beta and has already sold more than 4 million cards, generating over $4.5 million in revenue through their limited “Genesis Sale,” which ends on October 10th. This includes a one-of-a-kind digital card that made headlines last year when it sold at auction for $62,000, becoming the 2nd most valuable TCG card in the world. Immutable is using some of this revenue to contribute to next year’s World Championship, which has a current prize pool of around $450,000.
