Web3 gaming platform Pixelmon recently announced the raise of $8 million in a seed funding round with participation from high-profile investors like Animoca Brands and Delphi Ventures.
Other institutions and angel investors that took part in the latest funding round include Amber Group, Bing Ventures, Bitscale Capital, Cypher Capital, Foresight Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson, and Yield Guild Games co-founder Gabby Dizon.
The latest cash injection comes two years after the game-centric project struggled with its business. According to a press release shared with Coinfomania, the cash inflow will be funneled into building casual and mid-core games.
The project’s team believes that these games will mimic the success of Pixelmon’s hypercasual side-scroller game, Kevin the Adventurer. Launched in October 2023 on Coinbase’s layer-2 Base network, the blockbuster game soon captured the interest of 36,000 players.
Pixelmon also intends to expand its decentralized IP across merchandise, comic books, trading card games, animated series, and more through franchises, sublicenses, and joint ventures.
Pixelmon Hunting Ground Action RPG
Early Work-in-Progress (WIP) preview.Join Kye in her exploration of our pre-textured Social Hub👀
Recorded in-game on mobile. pic.twitter.com/Db3VLcHrvh
— Pixelmon (@Pixelmon) January 18, 2024
Pixelmon: From Zero to Hero
Pixelmon’s inception dates back to February 2022, when the project had a difficult start. After much hype and built-up sensation, the project’s initial founders launched an NFT collection that raked in a whopping $70 million. However, the flourishing attention was short-lived, as NFT holders argued that the artwork was horrible and ugly. Even the then-project lead, Syber, admitted that the art collection had “poor quality.”
However, things started to look up for Pixelmon as Web3 venture capital studio LiquidX acquired 60% of the gaming platform. LiquidX co-founder Giulio Xiloyannis emerged as Pixelmon’s CEO. Under the new leadership, most of Pixelmon’s initially disliked NFTs were replaced with premium-looking cartoon creatures. Games like Kevin the Adventurer and PixelPals have been built around the project’s IP.
Presently powered by its IP fractionalized system on protocol, the Pixelmon team is working on the potential launch of its MON token this year. The ERC-20 token will serve as a utility token within the game-centric ecosystem.
