decrypt.co
The Web3 gaming industry continues to pique the interest of investors. Brazil-based startup Jungle announced today that it has raised $6 million in seed funding in a round co-led by venture capital firms Bitkraft Ventures and Framework Ventures, with plans to develop a Web3 mobile shooter.
Delphi Digital, 32bit Ventures, Karatage, Stateless Ventures, and others also participated in the round. The funding will be used to develop Jungle’s upcoming first title, as well as build out its team of developers.
Unlike more robust desktop and console games that can take years to polish and publish, the mobile game development pipeline moves relatively quickly. And instead of developing all of its own lore and characters in-house, Jungle plans to buy up intellectual property (IP) from other existing game studios and adapt them into Web3 mobile games.
“Our strategy is to identify mobile games, either already live or in the process of being launched, which have the potential to be successfully converted to Web3-first titles and become dominant titles within their genre in the blockchain gaming space,” Jungle co-founder and CEO Joao Beraldo told Decrypt.
“We’re looking for the blue spots in a soon-to-be red ocean," Beraldo added. "We want to avoid the current clusters of competition and forward position ourselves in the genres where we can win."
The name of Jungle’s first title has not been revealed yet, but the mobile shooter will allow players to sell the items they find in the game as NFTs. The game will also have an “opt-in by default open market economy,” according to a statement.
The Jungle team believes that mobile is currently the best platform for Web3 games because it has the most overall users, making it “the only one with the potential to onboard a mass audience to Web3,” Beraldo said.
Bitkraft Ventures Partner Carlos Pereira told Decrypt why the firm invested in Jungle’s vision for Web3 gaming, and shared his approach to selecting startups.
“We're ‘inch wide, mile deep’ focused in the interactive entertainment segment,” Pereira said, adding that Bitkraft's prior experience investing in the Web2 gaming world also informs its decisions. "We think ultimately that experience gives us an edge in what we’re focused on with Web3."