Futureverse Raises $54m for AI-based Metaverse Soccer Game
This article is based on our Weekly News Digest #29 from 24.07.2023. If you want to receive such analyses first, be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. There, we analyze the largest deals, elaborating on the financials and strategy behind, while also covering the smaller transactions of the week.
New Zealand-based Futureverse, a Web3 and a gaming startup, has raised $54m in a Series A funding round led by 10T Holdings, with participation from Ripple Labs. The company didn’t disclose its Seed round details, so there is no info concerning its earliest investors.
Futureverse was founded in 2022 by Aaron McDonald, tech and entertainment investor Shara Senderoff, technology and information security expert Marco Brondani, and business operator Dan Gillespie. Today, the company is working on the intersection of both recent tech trends: Web3 and AI.
The company aims to create an open metaverse and has already launched sports-related games, including the officially licensed FIFA title “World Cup AI League” with AI-driven gameplay. With the new Series A funding, Futureverse will accelerate its metaverse development and proceed with the elaboration of its brand Futureverse Platform featuring “Powered By Futureverse” and The Root Network, a set of blockchain development tools.
The company uses Altered State Machine’s (ASM), a decentralized AI protocol that allows players to create their own AI-powered avatars. Players can train and trade unique Artificial Intelligence via digital ASM Brains NFTs. The AI gives every avatar a random set of features and traits that create a unique experience for every player. The avatar also gains knowledge and memories via an embedded machine-learning protocol, allowing it to evolve and change.
Over the past six months, we can observe an ever-increasing interest of investors in AI in the gaming industry. According to our data, in 2020, there were only 10 deals with a total value of $113m involving gaming companies that use AI — all these companies were tech and tools developers. In 2023, we saw an increased interest in the startups that either work on AI tools or implement AI in their workflow. We will share more data with you in our upcoming Global Gaming Deals Activity Report H1’23. There is no doubt that the number of such companies will only continue to grow in the foreseeable future, in the foreseeable future, and we will pay increased attention to this trend.
