Splinterlands, a non-fungible token (NFT) card trading and gaming platform, has announced the conclusion of a new financing round.
The round saw participation from Animoca Brands, Blockchain Founders Fund and Side Door Ventures. The investors who came in this funding round provide great breadth in terms of perspective. It shows how VC firms continue to jump on the blockchain bandwagon as they increasingly consider it an investable technology, and proves the real-world adoption of NFTs into trading card games.
Founded in 2018, Splinterlands is a blockchain-based card game, where the trading cards are non-fungible tokens that allow players to own, trade, and earn their in-game assets. With more than 100,000 registered users (25k of which are paying/premium accounts), the ecosystem ensures higher recognition and interest from the gamer community.
Splinterlands users, to date, have competed in more than 60 million total matches and are creating 600k blockchain transactions every day, making it one of the most active dApps in the world. The company has awarded millions of dollars in crypto and NFTs to its players in 142 countries.
Splinterlands addresses the problem that most digital card games do not allow players to trade or sell their in-game assets to other players. On top of that, its solutions enhance the future of player-owned economies by launching games on the public Hive blockchain and offering its in-game assets as NFTs. This also means that users’ cards hold real value, which has the potential to skyrocket according to rarity and market demand.
“This is an extremely exciting moment for Splinterlands. There are big things on the horizon for the team. They have a strong leadership and like the game a supernatural ability to execute. Having invested in the company, it's thrilling to witness the continued growth and success of Splinterlands,” said Aly Madhavji, Managing Partner, Blockchain Founders Fund.
Yat Siu, chairman and co-founder, Animoca Brands, also added: “Animoca Brands is honored to become a strategic shareholder and collaborator of Splinterlands and we look forward to growing its business, including providing support for growth in new markets such as Asia. Splniterlands already collaborates with various Animoca Brands' subsidiaries and partners, including The Sandbox and YGG, so it made sense to bring our two companies closer.”
Splinterlands is also delighted to welcome two industry veterans - Yat Siu and Aly Madhavji - to join its Board of Advisors.
Yat Siu is a technology entrepreneur. Based in Hong Kong, he is co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, an ASX-listed company focusing on popular brands operating in gamification, AI, and blockchain industries.
Commenting on his appointment, Yat Siu said: “It is a great honor to be involved in this project and helping make the vision of Matt and Jesse and the entire Splinterlands team into reality. Spliterlands was among the first to recognize the enormous potential of blockchain gaming and NFTs, including the shift in digital property rights that the adoption of this technology is bringing to gaming. I very much look forward to Splinterlands future contributions to this movement.”
Aly Madhavji is Managing Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund. He is passionate about emerging technologies and his expertise spans blockchain, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, education, and FinTech. Aly spent the last few years investing and working on several blockchain ventures and also consults leading organizations and governmental bodies on emerging technologies.
“I am thrilled to be joining the advisory board for Splinterlands. The team has achieved remarkable success to date, pioneering NFT assets in games, and building the top-ranked gaming dApp. I am extremely proud of the entire team and together we will continue to grow the game and build the ecosystem for NFT gaming,” said Aly Madhavji.