Weekly Recap

After multiple weeks of total funding near $300 million, things have cooled slightly, with this week’s total falling to $155 million across 19 deals. Metaverse & Gaming was the leading category due to a $100 million fundraise by MapleStory Universe, our Deal of the Week. Infrastructure was the most popular category from a deal count perspective, tallying eight deals totaling $14 million.

Seed rounds were the most common deal stage, with seven rounds totaling $20 million. The remaining twelve deals were relatively evenly distributed across strategic and other early-stage rounds. There were no late-stage deals this week, although Immutable X ($4.5 billion FDV) announced completion of a strategic investment round led by Framework Ventures.

Funding By Category

Funding By Deal Stage

Deal of the Week

MapleStory Universe, a blockchain gaming project, has raised $100 million from Nexon in an undisclosed round. Nexon is a huge name in the gaming industry with a whopping $27 billion valuation and is a premier partner to have as MapleStory builds its gaming universe. MapleStory is striving to create a dynamic virtual ecosystem, integrating NFTs into its games and applications. They are building using Polygon Supernets, a blockchain dedicated to handling the intricacies of massive online gaming. MapleStory will use the funding to enhance its in-game economy and develop its game.

Why is this Deal of the Week?

MapleStory’s $100 million fundraise marks one of the biggest gaming fundraises throughout 2023. Many expect gaming to be one of the biggest growth areas of crypto in the coming years. The fundraise signifies the continued belief and confidence from investors in bringing that vision to fruition. MapleStory is a Web3 mass multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), one of the most popular categories in traditional gaming. Examples of MMORPGs include World of Warcraft, Skyrim, and Final Fantasy, which all have nearly 1 million active daily players. MapleStory hopes to attract the same type of user base with its free-to-play online game, mobile capabilities, and open-source world-building. MapleStory already has over 180 million registered users and hopes to become a stable of the GameFi industry. The funding will help them improve the in-game economy and user experience, positioning themselves as a frontrunner in the sector.

Selected Deals

Formless, a decentralized network empowering users to share in a digital economy, raised $2.2 million in a pre-seed investment round led by a16z. Other investors included Crypto CSS, Sandeep Naiwal, and Ryan Fang. Formless is building the decentralized infrastructure for property rights management and revenue sharing. Formless’ SHARE Protocol allows developers, creators and organizations to fractionalize ownership of physical and digital property and split royalties. The funding will be used to drive Formless’ commitment to advancing the SHARE protocol and powering the next generation of products and experiences in a multi-user digital economy.

Immutable, a Web3 game development platform, has raised an undisclosed amount via a strategic investment round led by Framework Ventures. Immutable state that the funding will be used to support its game service technology and capabilities. Immutable has stated that over 200 games have been committed to being built on its platform, as they hope to become the premier destination for developers and players alike. Immutable’s token $IMX has risen 13.15% this week following news of the funding round.

Medallion, the homebase app for musical artists, raised $13.7 million in a Series A round led by Dragonfly Capital and Lightspeed Faction. Medallion is a dedicated digital hub for artists to promote album or song releases, tour dates, or sell digital collectibles and exclusive content. Many musicians struggle with managing interactions with their fanbases or tracking the use of their content. Medallion is focused on providing artists comprehensive management tools and bringing them closer to their communities. Medallion plans to use the funding to add new features to the platform such as listening to pre-released music or offering pre-sale tickets to concerts.