Cryptocurrency and gaming startup Futureverse has raised $54 million in a series A funding round, which it will use for research and development towards its metaverse goals.
That’s according to reports from outlet Decrypt. The company will utilise the investment in growing its gaming focused blockchain, The Root Network. The round was led by venture capital firm 10T Holdings, with participation from Ripple Labs, creator of decentralised public blockchain XRP Ledger, which is integrated into The Root Network. Additional investors participated in the round, but chose to remain anonymous.
Playing with the metaverse
Futureverse aims to create what it calls an open metaverse, and to this end has acquired eight cryptocurrency companies including AI firm Altered State Machine and NFT project creator Non Fungible Labs, and three other companies for a total of 11. The company has utilised the interests of its acquisitions to create two sports-related games. Muhammad Ali: The Next Legends, includes support from the boxing legend’s estate and incorporates NFTs for both characters and AI.
The company has also released the officially licenced FIFA title World Cup AI League, which utilises artificial intelligence as part of the core gameplay loop. The game has seen more than 50,000 downloads on Android so far, and was released on iOS last week.
In a prepared statement, 10T CEO and Chief Investment Officer Dan Tapiero commented: “Futureverse has developed an immersive and vertically-integrated metaverse platform that acts as an AI technology provider, metaverse infrastructure builder, layer-1 architect, creative studio, and digital community all in one.”
The success of Futureverse highlights once again the continued confidence that the tech industry has in the emerging metaverse, as well as its related technology such as web3 gaming and NFTs.
“While we’re at the earliest stages of what a project like this—and really the larger concept of the metaverse—can achieve, we at Ripple are thrilled to contribute to the foundational infrastructure layer and provide real utility to the end users of the open metaverse,” said Ripple Labs president Monica Long.
Last month, FIFA Mobile exceeded $1 billion in lifetime revenue.
