“If you use the existing mental model of hardware driving innovation, then this doesn’t work. The next innovation might not come from hardware but blockchain, which is in essence a database, he said. Huang is nonetheless optimistic about blockchain-powered games, arguing that for the last few decades, breakthroughs in hardware have ushered in new innovation cycles - from arcade, console and PC to mobile games. The gaming industry overall, in comparison, is approaching three billion users by 2023, research firm Newzoo forecasted. Investments for blockchain games reached $7.6 billion in 2022, more than double the sum from a year ago, according to analytics firm DappRadar on average, though, just over one million unique active wallets were connected to game dApps (decentralized apps) daily last year (crypto wallets are channels for gamers to access and trade their in-game assets). Despite the billions of dollars poured into web3 gaming, the genre is mostly attracting crypto-native users for now. The investors are going after a sector that is still very much a niche. The firm’s typical check size for seed investments in traditional equity is from $2-10 million the checks are slightly smaller for web3 projects, ranging from $1 million to $5 million. Oh and Huang will hunt down conventional gaming projects in Asia but will also allocate a big chunk of their time to high-potential blockchain games. “I came through two years of banking and did investments for the last six years… Having that operator-plus-investor combo is something that’s very, very powerful that we don’t see in many of the funds.” “My background is very investor focused,” added the investor, who has been a lifelong gamer himself. Oh “really knows the space very well as an operator… He’s very well connected and knows the ins and outs of building a game and a platform and all the adjacencies with gaming,” said Huang. The team also benefits from the investors’ complementary experiences in the gaming industry. Over time, the firm aims to develop a dedicated strategy for the continent with the goal of increasing investments in Asia to 20-25%.ĭespite being a small team of two in the region, the fact that Bitkraft has boots on the ground in Asia gives it a big advantage over many other Western gaming funds, Huang, who’s based in Singapore, told TechCrunch in an interview. After eight years of investing mostly in the West, the firm is extending its footprint to Asia to capture the continent’s savvy mobile gamers and fledgling web3 gaming space.īitkraft, which has a portfolio of over 100 startups, announced today that it is expanding to Asia by bringing on two new members: Jin Oh, formerly president of Riot Games and CEO of Garena, will take the helm as partner Jonathan Huang, former associate director at Temasek, will serve as principal.Ĭurrently, Bitkraft invests 15% outside of the Western market, with the majority in Asia. With $830 million in assets under management, Bitkraft Ventures has built a name for backing early- to mid-stage web3 games and other immersive technologies.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |