Futureverse, a crypto tech and gaming startup, has secured $54 million in Series A funding to support its expansion in the metaverse space.
The funding round was led by venture capital firm 10T Holdings, with participation from Ripple Labs, the creator of XRP Ledger, the company said in a recent press release.
Futureverse said it plans to use the funds for research and development purposes, as well as to advance its gaming-focused blockchain, called The Root Network.
The Root Network is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine and incorporates XRP Ledger integration, allowing users to utilize XRP and its non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Additionally, Futureverse has plans to develop more blockchain games in the future.
“The metaverse has the potential to transform the way humans engage and collaborate with one another and improve our experiences across a number of different spheres, including gaming, payments, asset management, and more,” Aaron McDonald and Shara Senderoff, co-founders of Futureverse, said in a statement.
Futurevese is a platform of 11 companies that range from gaming studios and entities that enable web3 payments to blockchain startups providing the tools for brands and builders to more easily create content for the metaverse.
The company was formed through the merger of eight companies in late 2022 and has since assimilated three more.
Futurevese Aims to Combine AI and Blockchain Technology
The overarching goal of Futureverse is to combine artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology to establish the infrastructure necessary for a seamless metaverse experience.
Futureverse has already launched two sports-related games.
In April, they released World Cup AI League, a mobile soccer game for Android and iOS that incorporates AI-powered gameplay.
Although the game does not feature real-life soccer stars, it offers colorful and cartoonish characters whose actions are controlled by AI.
Moreover, Futureverse collaborated with the estate of the late boxer Muhammad Ali to create Muhammad Ali: The Next Legends, an AI game that utilizes NFTs.
Players act as coaches, making strategic decisions for their boxers. Each boxer NFT must be paired with an “AI Brain” NFT to determine their behavior.
Meanwhile, the recent funding comes amid growing skepticism toward the concept of the metaverse, which was all the hype over the past few years.
However, Ripple Labs President Monica Long said she still believes in Futureverse’s vision.
“While we’re at the earliest stages of what a project like this—and really the larger concept of the metaverse—can achieve, we at Ripple are thrilled to contribute to the foundational infrastructure layer and provide real utility to the end users of the open metaverse,” Long said in a statement.
The metaverse has been a topic of intense debate in the tech world, particularly since many big supporters of the idea have recently backed down from their ambitions.
Earlier this year, entertainment giant Disney announced that it is eliminating its metaverse division as part of broader layoffs that will impact as many as 7,000 employees.
Moreover, Microsoft has discontinued its Industrial Metaverse Core team this year, a four-month-old project aimed to encourage the use of the metaverse in industrial environments.
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