Top Web3 Gaming Guild YGG and Binance-backed Gaming Studio Unagi Raises Massive Funds
Leading web3 gaming giant, Yield Guild Games (YGG), is all set to join the venture capital space, having raised $75 million for its initial investment. Meanwhile, web3 gaming studio Unagi just announced a €4.7 million seed round of funding as they are planning to expand their NFT fantasy sports platform apart from football and basketball. In this article, we are going to shed light on two most exciting crypto funding news this week. First, we will discuss how Yield Guild Games is planning the formation of venture capital space, and then we will move forward to discuss Unagi’s seed round of funding.
Yield Guild Games and Web3 Funding
As compared to other play-to-earn games, YGG has also made investments and worked with digital environments like The Sandbox, RPGs like Guild of Guardians, MMORPGs like Ember Sword, and the space discovery game Star Atlas.
Yield Guild Games (YGG) co-founder Beryl Li confirmed the formation of venture capital and the targeted amount for funds in a statement: “The fund’s mandate is to invest in early-stage token and equity deals in web3, gaming studios and the infrastructure that supports the growth of the industry to benefit the LPs [limited partners] of YGG Ventures Fund I,” reads the fund’s pitch deck, which was obtained by The Block.
YGG Ventures Fund I comes at an interesting stage in which funding for cryptocurrency companies has dropped as a result of a series of collapses and problematic market conditions. Beryl Li claimed that because the marketplace has already reached its lowest, now is the “perfect time” to raise money for some mega projects. YGG company states: We are quite passionate about the infrastructure in the web3 game industry. We want to continue supporting the expansion of the web3 ecosystem. We’re seeing a number of excellent founders with enhanced game dynamics out there.
YGG now purchases NFTs and other gaming equipment and offers them to players as a gaming guild. In contrast to YGG Ventures, YGG’s company goal is to “directly drive incentives for the guild members,” according to the deck.
According to Li, YGG Ventures won’t interfere with any of the YGG Association’s operations. Ventures seek to provide additional financial support for games while the association will keep up its collaboration with them, according to Li. The arrangement between the two ensures that the association will share in any economic gains made by the venture’s investment activity.
YGG is highly promoted by leading investors mainly Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), ParaFi Capital, and Mechanism Capital. Andreessen Horowitz took part in a $13.8 million token deal on Friday to fund YGG. According to the deck, YGG Ventures GP, a Cayman Islands-based organization, would act as the fund’s managing partner. The fund will last for five to seven years and requires a minimum commitment of $500,000 per limited partner (LP).
Unagi Gets Funding for Expansion
Unagi, a blockchain game studio that also became the Binance Labs’ center of attention in November, has now raised €4.7 million in funding. Ultimate Champions is the first web3 fantasy sports game launched by Unagi gaming studio. Unagi studio is led by Remi Pellerin and Charlie Guillemot, the two former employees of the French video game publisher Ubisoft.
Players can build up virtual playing cards showing football players on Unagi’s free-to-play Ultimate Champions platform, which gives them the option to select their ideal team and replace players by adding new cards to their collection.
The skill levels on each player card are updated after each real-world fixture and change depending on the player’s performance in the actual world. Each playing card is a holdable NFT, and users can exchange them for awards at the end of each game day.
Unagi is currently preparing to release a basketball-themed version of its game, creating new growth prospects and enhancing user experience. The best clubs and players will be included in the upcoming edition thanks to a license agreement arranged by Euroleague Basketball.
Over 200,000 users have signed up for the football game, and Unagi has licenses with 47 top soccer teams across Europe, including those in France, Germany, the UK, and Romania.
Remi Pellerin, CEO, and co-founder of Unagi studio recognized the advent of web3 gaming: “Web3 gaming is on the rise. For Unagi, Ultimate Champions is a pilot with which we’re creating, testing, and improving the gaming web3 tools we’re developing in our studio.
“We’re incredibly proud of the game’s progress over the last few months in the football world and we’re looking forward to expanding on that experience and offering sporting enthusiasts our new Euroleague Basketball game. It’s an exciting time”.
