Yield Guild Games (YGG), a decentralized gaming guild of players and investors who generate yield from NFT-based games, announced today it has raised $4.6M investment led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The round, which was finalised prior to the YGG token sale on July 27, was joined by Kingsway Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Atelier Ventures, and gaming entrepreneur Gabriel Leydon.
The funding will be used to continue YGG’s investment in digital assets in games and virtual worlds across the play-to-earn ecosystem, while expanding its global community of over 48,000 gamers, with more than half of the members residing in the Philippines. As a provider of scholarships to the game Axie Infinity, YGG’s player base can borrow its yield-generating in-game assets under a revenue-sharing model, so they can begin earning an income from playing NFT games without having to invest any money upfront. To date, YGG has 4,700 scholars, over 2500 of whom are Filipinos, in the game Axie Infinity that have earned over 43M SLP (US $8.6M).
With Filipino co-founders Gabby Dizon and Beryl Li, this is the first time a16z has invested in a Filipino-led startup. Dizon brings over two decades of experience in the gaming industry, while fintech entrepreneur Li was on the founding team at Philippine crypto exchange Coins.ph, acquired by GoJek in 2018. A third co-founder, Owl of Moistness, is a smart contract developer with experience building Axie Infinity breeding algorithms and bots to integrate NFTs in Discord.
