Quick take:
- Andreessen Horowitz has raised $600M for a new gaming fund.
- The firm said it will co-invest with its crypto fund in blockchain gaming projects.
- The Silicon Valley-based VC has been one of the leading investors in the Web3 space.
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has jumped into the gaming craze with both feet after raising a $600 million gaming fund. A company source said the fund will co-invest with its crypto fund in blockchain games and related projects.
The firm has named the new fund “Games Fund One” suggesting there could be more to follow in the future. According to a blog post on a16z’s website, the inaugural fund is dedicated to buulding the future of the games industry.
The company’s views draw similarities with Microsoft’s comments when it acquired Activision Blizzard. The Andreessen Horowitz team believes that “games infrastructure and technologies will be key building blocks of the Metaverse.”
The metaverse is an immersive virtual space of interconnected 3D worlds where participants use avatars to engage in conversations and gaming activities, among other experiential events.
The metaverse is tipped to exceed $800 billion in market value by 2026, according to a report published by Bloomberg, while Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Morgan Stanley predict the opportunity could be worth upwards of $8 trillion to $13 trillion.
The venture capital firm said its $600 million Games Fund One will target three main investment verticals, inclduing games studios, games and consumers, and infrastructure.
The team is leveraging the disruptive force of gaming within the Web3 space, which it says is “driving innovation across the entire consumer ecosystem, pioneering best-in-class mechanisms for user engagement, retention, and monetization, such as microtransactions, battle passes, and web3 tokens.”
The fund will be composed of some top leaders and visionaries from the gaming industry including: “David Baszucki, founder of Roblox; Jason Citron, founder of Discord; Marc Merrill, co-founder of Riot Games; Mike Morhaime, co-founder of Blizzard; Aleks Larsen and Jeffrey Zirlin, cofounders of Sky Mavis; Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch, Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga; and Riccardo Zacconi, founder of King,” a16z wrote.
The fund signals a major step in a16z’s foray into the gaing industry after leading several funding rounds for top Web3 gaming and metaverse projects. It recently led Yuga Labs’ $450 million fundraising with the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection creator looking to scale its Web3 presence by luanching its own metaverse ecosystem, Otherside.
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