Quick take:
- Leading DeFi investment company Framework Ventures will invest $200 million in blockchain gaming.
- The venture capital has launched a $400 million FV III fund to invest in DeFi and Web3 gaming.
- The investment company has previously invested in the popular Web3 gaming projects Illuvium and Stardust.
Leading decentralised finance (DeFi) investment company Framework ventures has launched a $400 million FV III fund to invest in DeFi and Web3 gaming projects. The company said Tuesday it will commit half of the fund, $200 million to blockchain games.
The San Francisco Calif-based venture capital firm now has approximately $1.4 billion in assets under management. The company made headlines in 2019, when it went all-in on DeFi, but has since diversified its investments, expanding to the lucrative blockchain gaming segment.
Some of its most notable investments include the multi-billion gaming projects Illuvium, which the firm believes will be the first to offer a triple-A blockchain gaming title. It also invested in the widely adopted web3 tool Zapper further extending its addressable market.
Most recently, Framework backed gaming and NFTs infrastructure platform Stardust.
Framework Ventures is co-led by o-Founders Michael Anderson (ex Snapchat) and Vance Spencer (ex Netflix). According to Framework, 90% of its managed assets are from a small set of institutional stakeholders.
Commenting on the firm’s third fund, Framework Co-Founder Vance Spencer said the company was pioneering a new way of crypto investing, promising to invest aggressively in other verticals in the blockchain space.
“Founders understand our cultural influence in the space because our affiliate, Framework Labs, has spent the last three years building alongside them, running nodes, participating in on-chain governance, building tools, staking and more.”
Spencer said Framework is well-positioned to outperform competitors in the space, which has attracted some of the largest mainstream venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, as well as, other GameFi and Web3-centered VCs such as Animoca Brands and DeFiance Capital.
The company has increased its workforce with 22 new hires to stay ahead of the competition. Some of the new members to join the team include “Operating Partner Daniel Mason (formerly Spring Labs), Communications Partner Adam Badrawi (formerly Chainlink Labs), as well as venture investors Rajiv Patel-O’Connor (formerly Coinbase), Brandon Potts, and Joe Coll.”
The company sees blockchain gaming as a strong growth catalyst over the next five years amid the metaverse and NFT craze.
Framework Ventures Co-Founder Michael Anderson said the team thinks this is the end of the beginning “for crypto, and consumer-ready experiences”, noting that gaming is on the verge of reaching the next milestone of mass adoption.
“I believe the next stage of the blockchain industry will be entirely about onboarding new users, and we think gaming is by far the biggest top-of-funnel opportunity. As the economics of play to earn models converge with triple-A games that are actually fun to play, we expect an explosion of growth for this sector.”
Anderson said that blockchain gaming will become one of the largest forms of employment in the world over the next few years, with billions attracted by the new economic opportunities offered through digital assets.
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