{"id":45042,"date":"2021-08-24T15:23:01","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T07:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=45042"},"modified":"2021-08-24T15:23:04","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T07:23:04","slug":"ygg-raises-4-6m-investment-led-by-venture-capital-firm-andreessen-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2021\/08\/24\/ygg-raises-4-6m-investment-led-by-venture-capital-firm-andreessen-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"YGG raises $4.6M investment led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yield Guild Games (YGG), a decentralized gaming guild of players and investors who generate yield from NFT-based games, announced that it has raised $4.6M investment led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The round, which was finalized prior to the YGG token sale on July 27, was joined by Kingsway Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Atelier Ventures, and gaming entrepreneur Gabriel Leydon.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funding will be used to continue YGG\u2019s investment<\/a> in digital assets in games and virtual worlds across the play-to-earn ecosystem, while expanding its global community of over 48,000 gamers, with more than half of the members residing in the Philippines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a provider of scholarships<\/a> to the game Axie Infinity, YGG\u2019s player base can borrow its yield-generating in-game assets under a revenue-sharing model, so they can begin earning an income from playing NFT games without having to invest any money upfront. To date, YGG has 4,700 scholars, over 2500 of whom are Filipinos, in the game Axie Infinity that have earned over 43M SLP (US $8.6M).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe intersection of crypto and gaming is one of the most exciting areas in tech today,\u201d said Arianna Simpson, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. \u201cYGG is at the center of play-to-earn, a new model that marks a meaningful evolution in gaming economies, where more of the value is retained by the players and community, rather than the gaming platforms. Thanks to the vision and dedication of the YGG team, this paradigm shift is growing quickly \u2013\u2013 yet we think we\u2019re just starting to glimpse what\u2019s possible in this realm. We\u2019re thrilled to partner with YGG to support the community and help accelerate the adoption of play-to-earn games.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Filipino co-founders Gabby Dizon and Beryl Li, this is the first time a16z has invested in a Filipino-led startup. Dizon brings over two decades of experience in the gaming industry, while fintech entrepreneur Li was on the founding team at Philippine crypto exchange Coins.ph, acquired by GoJek in 2018. A third co-founder, Owl of Moistness, is a smart contract developer with experience building Axie Infinity breeding algorithms and bots to integrate NFTs in Discord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA16z delivers incredible value to help entrepreneurs achieve their vision and Beryl and I are humbled to be the first Filipino founders to receive their wholehearted backing,\u201d said Gabby Dizon, co-founder of YGG. \u201cMost importantly, a16z have proven to be unphased by the ups and downs of crypto cycles, instead maintaining a long-term view to focus on technology and innovation, which is what we need in a partner to help us scale the narrative and impact of play-to-earn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The funding will be used to continue YGG\u2019s investment in digital assets in games and virtual worlds across the play-to-earn ecosystem, while expanding its global community of over 48,000 gamers, with more than half of the members residing in the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":45043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[34,2506],"class_list":["post-45042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-gaming-2","tag-gaming-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}