Largest Tencent Shareholder Leads $15M Round in Blockchain Game Developer

Naspers, the largest shareholder of Chinese Internet giant Tencent, has participated in a $15 million investment in blockchain game developer Immutable. 

Key investors

Immutable, a Sydney-based blockchain gaming startup, completed a new funding round led by Naspers and Galaxy Digital EOS VC Fund, the company announced in a blog post on Sept. 23.

As reported by the Australian Financial Review (AFR), other investors also included Sydney-based VC firm Reinventure and American private investment firm Apex Capital.

Scaling from 13,000 to 1 million gamers projected

According to the report, Immutable's flagship game Gods Unchained has made more than $4.5 million in revenue in just over a year, despite it is being played by a closed group of 13,000 gamers. 

Founded by brothers Robbie and James Ferguson in July 2018, Immutable reportedly expects to grow Gods Unchained from the current 13,000 to one million players with the new investment, James stated in an interview with AFR.

Based on the Ethereum blockchain, Gods Unchained is a trading card game that has reportedly overtaken other popular TCGs such as Artifact, Faeria and Kards, Immutable claimed.

In February 2019, Gods Unchained’s unique digital card Hyperion became the world’s second most expensive card ever sold after selling for 137.8 Ether (ETH), or $62,000 at the time of auction. 

On Sept. 17, the Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) announced that one of the largest decentralized apps in the world, online real-time economic strategy game Prospectors, was launching on the WAX blockchain.