Polish mobile publisher Hexacore has secured a $3.5m funding round led by Dubai-based venture capital firm Scalo, and joined by both Xsolla and Estoty.
The investment will drive further development of Hexacore’s catalogue of hybrid monetisation focused titles, including their efforts in NFT and web3 gaming. It also reflects a broader trend of investment into the gaming sector from the Saudi Arabia and MENA regions which has fuelled numerous high profile acquisitions such as Savvy’s deal to acquire mobile-game publisher Scopely earlier this year.
Hexacore, despite their focus on Web3, have mainly found success in hypercasual games. With their titles Sushi Roll, Blend it 3D and Merge Animals receiving 250m downloads between them. However, it seems that they think the future likes web3, and their investors agree.
Scalo Technologies director and co-founder Abdumalik Mirakhmedov commented, “We firmly believe that the company has the potential to become a major player in the web3 gaming industry, based on its ability to revolutionise how gamers interact with in-game assets, benefiting from a hybrid monetisation model.”
Meanwhile, Hexacore’s own co-founder and chief executive Mikita Khazau said, “Web3 technology enables individuals to own and trade gaming assets. However, the ability to achieve interoperability across multiple games lies in the hands of game developers. We are moving down this path.”
Judging by these comments it’s clear that the investment is also a vote of confidence in the future of web3 on mobile and otherwise. This can be seen not just from the Saudi Arabian firms, but also from longtime investors Xsolla and Estoty who joined the funding round.
Good for mobile regardless
Regardless of one’s position on the future of web3, the metaverse, NFTs and these allied technologies, it’s clear that mobile is an appealing avenue for investment, especially in cash-flow heavy Saudi Arabia. The country has long been trying to revitalise its economy and tech sector with a new focus on gaming, and has gone to great lengths both in an official and unofficial capacity to do so.
Although some major gaming companies such as Sega have significantly cooled on blockchain, it’s clear that there’s still interest from investors. And regardless of the onward success of web3 it could be said that these companies may find a transition to regular mobile companies relatively trivial, fuelling success whichever way the future takes them.
