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Andreessen Horowitz has introduced $600 million in funding for its new Video games Fund One, an “inaugural fund devoted to constructing the way forward for the video games business.”
a16z Appears to be like to the Metaverse
Andreessen Horowitz—generally styled a16z—has announced a devoted fund for recreation improvement with an emphasis on Web3 and Metaverse purposes. Stating in its announcement that “the approaching Metaverse shall be constructed by recreation firms,” the Silicon Valley funding big is placing up $600 million to steer the route of its improvement.
The agency introduced three fundamental “themes” it might put money into: recreation studios, infrastructure, and client attraction. Citing the success of the preferred on-line video games available on the market, resembling Fortnite and League of Legends, a16z mentioned that it thinks that video games will develop into the “dominant method individuals spend time,” and claimed that probably the most modern firms shall be constructed round client communities.
Whereas Video games Fund One is a16z’s first fund devoted to video games, the agency has backed many profitable recreation initiatives. Its earlier investments embody Zynga and Oculus and the agency has invested in veteran expertise from notable studios resembling Riot Video games and Epic Video games. The corporate mentioned that its expertise “has cemented [its] perception that video games require a specialised focus—not simply in devoted investing capital, but additionally in operational prowess that’s as distinctive and forward-thinking because the video games business itself.”
a16z will not be completely a crypto-oriented enterprise capital agency, but it surely has demonstrated itself to be dedicated to the area and prepared to put money into its development actively. In June of 2021, it dedicated $2.2 billion to funding crypto and blockchain innovation. Originally of the 12 months, it was reported that it was in search of one other $4.5 billion for related functions, though that elevate remains to be but to be confirmed.
The corporate has been publicly optimistic about crypto and blockchain for a number of years now. In 2018, Marc Andreessen famously in contrast the rising asset class to the early days of the Web, and extra not too long ago it’s invested in main initiatives like Solana, Sky Mavis’ Axie Infinity, and Uniswap.
Disclosure: On the time of writing, the writer of this piece owned BTC, ETH, SOL, and a number of other different cryptocurrencies.