Jafco backs Japan VR game developer

Gaming focused investor Sisu Ventures and VR specialist Presence Capital, both based in the US, also participated, as did Japan’s Incubate Fund.

Thirdverse was founded as Yomuneco in 2013 and rebranded last June to reflect long-term ambitions to create a virtual “metaverse” for online communication and socializing that combines VR games with blockchain technology.

Thirdverse is best known for helping develop “Swords of Gargantua,” an online VR multiplayer combat game compatible with Oculus headset equipment. A similar style of game, “Frostpoint VR: Proving Grounds,” is set for release later this year and will be the company’s first independently published title. 

Masaru Ohnogi, a co-founder of Thirdverse, has been involved in VR since 2015, having established a fund and incubated a number of projects. He claims to have visited more than 20 countries during this time to better understand the global VR ecosystem.

“Over the past year, our active user base grew with the increase of device penetration in the global market,” Ohnogi said in a statement. “I strongly believe that the market is finally ready, and this is the right time to grow our start-up.”

Thirdverse’s vision of gamified online communities and interactions highlights the maturation of the gaming sector from a sub-segment of the entertainment industry into a more expansive opportunity set of lifestyle verticals. This evolution has come about in part because gaming has moved from youth culture to the social mainstream during a time of rapid development in tech fields such as cloud computing and VR.

The online gaming market is expected to be worth more than $300 billion globally by 2025, according to GlobalData, and most of that growth will be in Asia Pacific. At present, the region accounts for 52% of the global market.

“It’s been 13 years since I first invested in mobile gaming. It’s hard to imagine that not many people fully believed in the potential of mobile gaming yet at that time,” Masahiko Honma, co-founder of Incubate Fund, added. “Now VR gaming is here and not many people have fully believed in its potential yet. As seen in the mobile gaming industry, I believe people’s view on VR will change dramatically soon.”

Jafco is Japan’s largest VC investor and closed its sixth flagship fund earlier this year at the hard cap of JPY80 billion ($755 million).

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Japan
• JAFCO
• Incubate Fund
• gaming
• TMT
• blockchain