Into the Metaverse (But Not Adidas’)

Venture Capital Deals

Swoops is an NFT-based fantasy basketball game where each basketball player is minted as an NFT that can be purchased, traded, staked, etc. The startup raised $3.5 million in a Series A led by Courtside Ventures and Alpaca VC. Other participants in the round included Slow Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, and a few individual investors like Jason Robins, the CEO of DraftKings. An important note, this game is not partnered with the NBA or any professional sports team. The NFTs are purely digital and face off in RNG (random number generator) games to algorithmically play out the results of the game. The funding will help cover the initial private NFT mint on Ethereum as well as a secondary public launch later this summer. (Gary Vaynerchuk-Backed Swoops Raises $3.5 Million for NFT Basketball Game)

Epic Games is a game producer most famous for its flagship game, Fortnite, as well as its game engine, Unreal Engine. The company raised $2 billion in a funding round that valued the company at $31.5 billion. This round saw participation from only Sony and KIRKBI, the parent company of The LEGO Group, splitting the investment evenly between them. The primary goal for the funding is to develop and launch an Epic Games metaverse to make more immersive and interactive...