Sebastian Sinclair

<div id="highlights-block_62c7b13a99f39" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Konvoy Ventures, which previously backed ailing crypto gaming developer Sky Mavis, has launched a new fund aimed at budding games studios</li>
 <li>Web3 tech, platforms and other various techologies will be the target of the fund, Konvoy said</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Early-stage investment firm Konvoy Ventures said Wednesday it has rolled out a multimillion-dollar fund for budding gaming companies focused on a number of verticals including Web3.



Dubbed Konvoy Fund III (KFIII), the new $150 million fund will focus on pre-seed, seed and Series A funding for those companies creating assets across multiple industries including education and healthcare, according to a statement.



Following the launch of KFIII, Konvoy said its managed assets would rise to $270 million. Despite a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-06-17/web3-fans-say-it-was-never-about-the-money" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">declining interest</a> for Web3 tech, Konvoy is hoping its latest fund will help connect investors to projects both in the budding blockchain sector as well as traditional games studios.



&#8220;The pandemic was an adrenaline shot to the gaming industry because more and more people turned to games as a source of entertainment and also a way of staying social with their remote communities,&#8221; Konvoy Managing Partner Jason Chapman said in the statement.



The venture capital firm launched its second fund in 2020 — worth around $65 million — in a bid to capitalize on growth in the gaming sector.



Founded in 2017, Konvoy focuses mainly on the North American, European and African markets with plans to expand further into Latin America, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia, it said.



The Denver-headquartered firm&#8217;s portfolio consists of 33 companies that have collectively raised $450 million in follow-on funding and have backed blockchain gaming developers, including the once praised <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/sky-mavis/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sky Mavis</a>, creator of <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/tag/axie-infinity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Axie Infinity</a>. 



Konvoy also participated in an $8.3 million funding round for <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/genopets-raises-8-3m-for-a-virtual-game-with-real-benefits/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFT game Genopets</a> last year.



The popular Axie has all but fallen <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/axie-infinity-active-users-nft-prices-continue-to-decline-after-bridge-reopening/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">flat on its face</a> in recent months, reflected in the weekly NFT (non-fungible token) sales volume on its platform, which declined by more than 99% since its peak in November — dropping from $753 million to $3 million. Genopets&#8217; native token, GENE, is down more than 77% from its all-time high of $37.79, also a November peak.



Still, Konvoy said the $200 billion video gaming industry, as well as the blockchain and crypto industry, presented a myriad of other opportunities for it to execute its &#8220;proactive and thesis-driven&#8221; approach.



&#8220;This new fund will not only allow us to focus on additional geographic regions but also new types of companies and technologies,&#8221; said Jackson Vaughan, another of Konvoy&#8217;s managing partners. &#8220;If there’s one main learning from this period [the pandemic], in which the world has undergone unprecedented disruption, is that there is such an enormous opportunity ahead of us.&#8221;



Konvoy said it plans to expand its team to 15-20 people by the end of 2023 and will seek to deploy more capital to around 30 early-stage companies over the next two and a half years.



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Funds

Konvoy Ventures Launches $150M Fund To Back Web3, Gaming Firms

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_616dd8e5abd47" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Genopets allows users to do various real-world physical exercises to earn rewards within the game that players can later cash out</li>
 <li>Pantera Capital and Konvoy Ventures co-led the round with participation from Alameda Research and CMS Holdings</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Genopets, a non-fungible token (NFT) game, raised $8.3 million in seed round funding, the company <a href="https://medium.com/@genopets/genopets-raises-8-3m-in-seed-round-funding-to-bridge-the-physical-and-digital-world-d884adc2cc97" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> on Monday. Co-led by Pantera Capital and Konvoy Ventures, <a href="https://www.genopets.me/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Genopets</a> said the money will go towards their mission “to bridge the physical and digital world.”



Powered by Solana, Genopets is an NFT project that encourages users to do various real-world exercises to earn rewards within the game — rewards that players can later cash out. Advertised as the “world’s first play-to-move game”, Genopets aims to provide “passive income to individuals as an incentive to stay physically active”, according to a statement from CEO Albert Chen.



“Genopets is a liquid digital asset representation of a gamer’s physical activity in the real world. It sits at the intersection of gaming, play-to-earn, and physical activity,” Josh Chapman, Managing Partner at Konvoy Ventures, said. “This platform connects a gamer’s real-world steps with their progression, customization, and value creation in the Genopet universe.”



The fundraising announcement comes amid billowing demand for NFT gaming. According to <a href="https://dappradar.com/blog/dapp-industry-report-q3-2021-overview/#high" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a Dapp Industry report</a>, the “play-to-earn movement” has been one of the key forces behind the NFT space’s astronomical growth.



Other participants in the round include Alameda Research, Solana Capital, DeFi Alliance, Yield Guild Games, CMS Holdings, CMT Digital and others. Genopets’ angel investors include Twitch Co-founder Kevin Lin, Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma and former Nike executive Melanie Strong.&nbsp;



“If I were to sum up Q3 in a single word, it would be ‘diversification’,” Modesta Jurgelevičienè, Head of Finance and Research at DappRadar, said in the quarterly report.







<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“The play-to-earn movement became a key driver in the space, NFTs turned towards greater utility and secured record volumes.”&nbsp;</blockquote>



The sector reportedly brought in 754,000 daily unique active wallets (UAW), a hike of 140% from the previous quarter.&nbsp;



“Play-to-Earn pinpointed an intersection of gaming and blockchain that has struck a chord with users: earning real money proportional to in-game performance,” Paul Veradittakit, Partner at Pantera Capital, said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“This is a trend we’ve been monitoring very closely; we believe it’s going to fundamentally transform the established gaming industry and onboard millions of users into the crypto ecosystem.”</blockquote>



From free-to-play mobile gaming, to the move-to-play mechanics exemplified by the Nintendo Wii, Pokemon Go, and virtual reality, combined with blockchain’s play-to-earn incentives, Genopets&#8217; Move-to-Earn model intertwines them all in what the company calls “gamified self-care.”



But will it move consumers to play?