Sky Mavis, the studio behind the famous non-fungible token (NFT) game Axie Infinity, has secured $152 million in its Series B funding round. The video game developer announced this news earlier today, noting that reputable investors, such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), FTX, and Accel, took part in the funding round.
According to the announcement, these funds will go towards financing the growth and development of Axie Infinity, as well as Ronin, the game’s Ethereum sidechain. In so doing, the company hopes to create economic and financial freedom for gamers. On top of this, the firm seeks to build its distribution platforms to help game developers create NFT-enabled games.
Although Axie Infinity has expanded at an astonishing rate, Sky Mavis acknowledges that onboarding institutional investors to its community will be elemental in widening the game’s reach. Additionally, the firm believes renowned investors will help it bolster its legitimacy, regarding regulatory protection.
On top of this, Sky Mavis believes institutional investors will introduce the flexibility to scale and hire more team members at a higher rate without spending its Axie Infinity (AXS) token reserves.
Axie Infinity continues growing
The Axie Infinity ecosystem has expanded rapidly over the past few months, evident in the number of players that have joined the game to date. Per Sky Mavis, the game’s player base has increased from 38,000 daily active players in April this year to over two million. The game has achieved this feat despite being available on mainstream app stores.
The company further noted that its NFT marketplace has already handled transactions worth over $2.2 billion. Moreover, users have locked over 4.5 billion in Ronin.
As a result of this growth, AXS has been making moon shots, gaining over 1,300% over the past three months. At the time of writing, the token is changing hands at $129.39 after losing 7.08% in 24 hours. This value depicts a 16.23% plunge from its October 4 all-time high (ATH) of $155.08.
Revolutionizing the gaming industry
Explaining why Accel decided to invest in Sky Mavis, Andrei Brasoveanu, Partner at Accel, said the company has the potential to revolutionize the gaming world. He added that the Sky Mavis team, which comprises co-founders Jeffrey Zirlin, Andy Ho, Trung Thanh Nguyen, Tu Doan, and Aleksander Leonard Larsen, is building a category-defining play-to-earn gaming and infrastructure company.
Sky Mavis is also gearing up to roll out Ronin DEX, a decentralized exchange that supports the trading of in-game tokens such as AXS and Smooth Love Potion (SLP) directly. The company’s roadmap also involves the development of Project K, a land-based game that lets players harvest resources, build structures, and battle for territory in Lunacia, Axie’s homeland.
This news comes as NFT-based games continue becoming popular among investors. Before Axie Infinity, Sorare, a French startup that developed an NFT-based soccer game, secured $680 million in its Series B funding round.
