Quick take:
- The $6.4 million funding includes a new $5.675m seed round.
- Magicave crafts digital hobbies centred around tactile virtual items using blockchain technology.
- This follows a successful pre-seed round late last year.
Digital toy, game and hobby startup, Magicave, today announced that it has secured $6.4 million in funding, including a new $5.675m seed round co-led by leading gaming VC BITKRAFT Ventures and Fabric Ventures.
Cryptography specialists, Geometry, and NFT-focused investment firm, Sfermion, also participated in the round.
Focusing on decentralised games with player-owned economies, using NFT and blockchain technology, the startup crafts digital hobbies centred around playful, tactile virtual items.
For instance, the company’s first project, dNo® (short for ‘d-Number’), marries collectible virtual dice with figures, tiles, stories and worlds, making innovative use of game and blockchain technology to nurture a unique digital hobby.
Magicave was founded by game industry veterans Harry Holmwood (CEO), Ste Curran (Creative Director) and Ed Thorley (CTO). Holmwood was previously a co-founder and director of London-based mobile gaming studio, The Secret Police. Ste Curran is a British video game journalist, presenter, author, tutor and game designer, while Thorley was head of engineering at London-based games studio, Yakuto.
“We believe that blockchain technology, and the decentralisation and flexibility it offers players and creators, has the potential to create a new way of thinking around games: object-oriented, just as joyful and, crucially, consumer-owned,” Holmwood commented. “We’re assembling a world-class team of game developers, artists and designers to build hobbies at the forefront of gaming and web3. Raising a substantial round from such respected investors gives us the time, and expertise, to build something really exciting.”
Nico Vereecke, Investor at BITKRAFT Ventures added, “From our first meeting it became clear that Magicave’s approach to Web3 is unlike any we’ve seen in the industry. Instead of using Blockchain as an economic layer, Magicave uses it to turn digital items into something fascinatingly close to physical toys. We’re excited about what this team has already achieved and what it will go on to do with our backing.”
BITKRAFT has invested in a worldwide network that spans many of the industry’s forward-thinking startups and founders—including former executives from the likes of Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Epic Games, Google, and Apple who are working to build and operate the virtual worlds and economies of the future.
The venture capital firm operates six venture funds with a total of over $825 million in assets under management and has over 100 companies in its global portfolio as of July 2022.
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