Quick take:
- Konvoy Ventures has raised $150 million for a new gaming fund.
- The Denver-based gaming VC said it will invest 20%-30% of the funds in blockchain and crypto-related games.
- Konvoy now boasts over $270 million in assets under management and has invested in 33 projects to date.
Konvoy Ventures is ramping up its blockchain gaming campaign after announcing a $150 million raised for a new fund. The company said it will commit 20%-30% of the capital raised to blockchain and crypto-related gaming projects.
Konvoy is a gaming-focused venture capital firm based in Denver. The company has invested in 33 projects to date, with the latest fundraising bringing its total assets under management to $270 million.
Among the projects it has backed in the crypto gaming space include Sky Mavis, the creators of the popular metaverse game Axie Infinity. The company also invested in Genopets, a blockchain game that allows players to grow and evolve an NFT pet through real-world physical exercise.
Konvoy is also one of the VCs backing the popular virtual avatar creation platform Ready Player Me.
The firm was founded in 2018 by brothers Josh and Jason Chapman and Jackson Vaughan, a childhood friend.
Although Jason Chapman, managing partner at Konvoy Ventures did not disclose whether his firm backed Sky Mavis’ $150 million fundraising to compensate the victims of the Ronin bridge hack, he maintained that the company is prepared to invest in blockchain gaming projects despite the crypto downturn.
Sky Mavis was a victim of one of the biggest crypto exploits in March this year after a hacker, later revealed by the US government to be North Korea’s Lazarus, stole $625 million in Ether and USDC.
“We’re excited to back them through the thick and thin,” he told Bloomberg.
Sky Mavis refunded victims of the hack on June 28, also reopening the Ronin bridge after increasing validator nodes to 11 up from 9.
His brother Josh revealed that the newly raised fund may prioritise token-based investments over equity. The company has no intention of putting everything into crypto gaming, with plans to continue investing in non-blockchain gaming projects.
“One hundred percent exposure to crypto would not be the right strategy for us, but 0% would also be the wrong strategy,” Josh Chapman said.
Although the crypto crash has affected most gaming tokens, the industry continues to receive significant venture funding, with the likes of Andreessen Horowitz raising $4.5 billion and Binance closing $500 million in the name of Web3 funding.
A report by DappRadar and Blockchain Gaming Association (BGA) estimates that VCs invested $2.5 billion in Q1, 2022. The report also forecasts that up to $10 billion could be poured into the space this year, up from $4 billion in 2021.
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