Singapore blockchain gaming start-up gets $20m
Singapore’s Oasys, a blockchain technology developer focused on web3 gaming, has raised USD 20m from several specialist crypto investors.
The capital was raised via a token sale, which offers exposure to virtual holdings representing business exposure rights. This style of capital raising, previously referred to as an initial coin offering (ICO), has faced regulatory restrictions in many jurisdictions because the tokens were equated to public securities.
Republic Capital, a blockchain financing and investment platform, led the round. It was joined by Fenbushi Capital, Crypto.com, Kucoin Ventures, Huobi Ventures, Gate Ventures, Bitbank, and Krust, a unit of Korean internet giant Kakao.
Jump Crypto, a web3 development division of US quantitative trading firm Jump Trading Group, also participated. Several gaming companies invested, including Gree, Mirana, and Yield Guild Games, a specialist in the play-to-earn segment.
Oasys was set up in February with a view to driving mainstream play-and-earn gaming adoption. At the time of launch, it partnered with 21 gaming and web3 companies, including Yield Guild, as well as Ubisoft, Sega, and Bandai Namco Research.
The idea is to create an ecosystem for gamers and developers to distribute and develop blockchain-based games. The company claims to solve problems specific to developing games on a blockchain without charging fees to transact on its network.
The play-and-earn model – allowing players to win tokens with value in the offline world – is marketed as distinct from play-to-earn, which regulators closely associate with an alternate economic system. The darling of the play-to-earn concept in Asia is Vietnam’s Axie Infinity, which raised a USD 152m round last year led by Andreessen Horowitz.
“Oasys is shaping the future of blockchain games and leading the charge by bringing legacy gaming IPs [intellectual properties] on-chain,” Brian Johnson, a partner at Republic, said in a statement. “We believe it was only a matter of time before the gaming giants like Bandai adopted blockchain technology and are impressed by the domain expertise of the Oasys founders.
Oasys’ team is said to be responsible for Doublejump.tokyo, a Japanese web3 game developer set up in 2018 that recently raised USD 25m from the likes of Jump Crypto, Next Web Capital, and Protocol Labs. Doublejump’s best-known game titles include My Crypto Heroes and Brave Frontier Heroes.
Kakao’s Krust was active in the web3 gaming space as recently as April, when it led a USD 34m round for Korea-based Iskra. The business – similarly described as an ecosystem for game developers – plans to launch its own USD 200m gaming fund focusing on web3 models.
Singapore's Kucoin is a crypto exchange active in gaming-related financial services that raised a USD 150m round in May featuring IDG Capital and Matrix Partners at a valuation of USD 10bn. That round also included Jump Crypto.
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