White Star Capital raises $120M for Ubisoft backed Web3 investment fund
Tech venture capital firm White Star Capital has secured $120 million in funding for its second Digital Asset Fund (DAF II) to invest in crypto networks and early-stage blockchain and Web3 businesses.
The fund is primarily backed by game publishing giant Ubisoft and will take a particular focus on decentralized finance (DeFi) and gaming. It will invest as much as $7 million in each of 20-25 companies in North America, Europe, and Asia.
The firm’s increased attention to DeFi, Web3, and blockchain-based technology suggests that it will begin to support companies that utilize or develop Metaverse solutions as well. This would bring it into the space in which Animoca Brands has carved out a neat corner for itself.
White Star’s previous investments from its first DAF in 2020 include Stacks-based DeFi protocol ALEX, and decentralized exchange (DEX) Paraswap, among others.
It also helped back the Bitcoin Odyssey on March 10, an initiative for investment firms to invest $165 million in solutions designed to drive Bitcoin adoption.
Metaverse and NFT gaming investments are on the rise early this week as traders look for distractions from negative price action in the crypto markets. Bitcoin (BTC) is down 5.62% over the past 24 hours trading at just below $40,000.
On April 11, Fortnite creator Epic Games announced it had raised $2 billion from Sony Group Corporation and LEGO Group holding company KIRKBI. Investors were intrigued by Epic’s new commitment to developing virtual games for the Metaverse.
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Animoca recently announced it had acquired racing game publisher Eden Games for $15.3 million in order to bolster its REVV Motorsport NFT game ecosystem and build out more Metaverse games.