- Polygon (MATIC) Labs has partnered with King River Capital and Immutable on a Web3 gaming fund.
- Polygon (MATIC) Labs and Immutable would source deals for the fund.
- The recent partnership represents the latest in a long line of gaming partnerships for Polygon.
Despite struggles to take off, investor interest in Web3 gaming remains. Picking the best bets, however, remains tricky, as with any emerging industry. To better investor odds, venture capital firm King River Capital is turning to Polygon (MATIC) Labs and its long-time partner Immutable as it launches a new fund that hopes to position select investors for an anticipated boom in the nascent sector.
The Perfect Triumvirate?
On Wednesday, March 20, King River Capital announced that it was launching a $100 million Web3 gaming fund called the Inevitable Games Fund (IGF) in partnership with Immutable and with assistance from Polygon (MATIC) Labs. King River explained that they would manage the deployment of the fund while Immutable and Polygon (MATIC) Labs would provide “key sourcing and Web3 gaming expertise.”
Citing Polygon and Immutable’s dominance in the Web3 gaming scene with a combined market share of over 70% per a recent Messari report, King River Capital tipped the IGF to offer high growth opportunities to investors in the sector it believed to be on the brink of an explosion similar to the mobile gaming industry. King River Capital co-founder Zeb Rice asserted:
"Just as mobile gaming went from virtually zero in 2008 to 79% of gamers playing mobile today, we believe a similar shift has only just begun to web3 technology. The Fund provides investors with an opportunity to gain unique access to the best web3 gaming projects globally and is designed to benefit from this multi-hundred billion dollar shift in spending to this disruptive new technology."
The fund, restricted to professional investors, has already seen commitments from players like Alpha Wave Ventures and Merit Circle and several family offices, including James and Robbie Ferguson, the co-founders of Immutable, and Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon.
At the same time, the fund has already earmarked seven projects for investment at the initial stage. These projects include Pixelmon, a Minecraft mod that allows players to capture, train, and battle Pokemon; Metalcore, an open-world arms game; and Guild of Guardians, an anticipated Immutable-based release.
The IGF fund partnership is the latest in many gaming partnerships for Polygon (MATIC) Labs.
Polygon (MATIC) All in on Gaming
In December 2023, Polygon Labs announced a partnership with Immutable and Merit Circle DAO to consolidate solutions to make Web3 game development easier while improving players’ overall experience.
In 2023, Polygon ranked third among gaming blockchains by unique active wallets, with 1 million, up 15% year-over-year (YoY), per DappRadar Games Report. At the same time, Game7’s 2023 State of Web3 Gaming report found that Polygon played host to the most Web3 games of any blockchain. Popular titles on the network currently include Matr1x, Anichess, and Gas Hero.
On the Flipside
- While the fund promises to be ecosystem agnostic, the direct influence of Polygon Labs and Immutable could see a lot of funding flow into both ecosystems.
- King River Capital participated in Immutable’s series B funding round.
Why This Matters
The recent IGF fund partnership highlights the continued investor interest in Web3 gaming and Polygon’s growing renown in the space.
Read this for more on Polygon’s gaming push:
Polygon Won’t Give Up on Web3 Games: Forms New Partnerships
Learn more about Polygon’s recent price action:
