YGG SEA raises $15 million to promote play-to-earn gaming in Southeast Asia

YGG SEA raises $15 million to promote play-to-earn gaming in Southeast Asia

By Hassan Maishera - min read

Play-to-earn gaming is very popular in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and is set to gain adoption beyond the industry.

Yield Guild Games Southeast Asia (YGG SEA) announced earlier today that it had raised $15 million in two different private funding rounds. The funds would be used to boost the adoption of play-to-earn gaming in Southeast Asian countries.

YGG SEA is a sub-decentralised autonomous organization (subDAO) of the Philippines-based blockchain gaming startup Yield Guild Games (YGG). 

According to the press release shared with Coinjournal, the initial round was led by YGG and Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC). 

The second funding round was led by some leading investors in the industry, including Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, MindWorks Ventures, Poloniex, Jump Capital, Sembrani Kiqani (a fund by BRI Ventures), Circle, Digital Currency Group, Hashed, Polygon, Bukalapak, United Overseas Bank (UOB) Venture Management and Arca Funds.

Other investors in this funding round include Evernew Capital, OKEx Blockdream Ventures, Yolo Ventures, SevenX Ventures, LongHash Ventures, Hashkey Group, Morningstar Ventures, Rise Capital, Dialectic, SweeperDAO, PetRock Capital, DNC Ventures, FBG Capital and Emfarsis.

Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung said his company believes in what YGG SEA intends to achieve. He said;

“As an investor in YGG, Animoca Brands is a supporter of the YGG SEA team, its business model, and its regional focus. We believe YGG SEA will strongly contribute to onboarding players to blockchain across South East Asia.”

YGG SEA is the first regional subDAO of Yield Guild Games and will focus on promoting play-to-earn gaming in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Crypto.com Capital Managing Director Bobby Bao also expressed his delight at YGG SEA’s goal. He said;

“Crypto.com Capital is pleased to support the launch of YGG’s first-ever subDAO — YGG SEA — in its private funding round. We believe that Southeast Asia will continue to be the largest market globally for play-to-earn operators and that YGG SEA — with its operational expertise spanning from YGG and its in-country teams — will continue to hold the lion’s share of high-quality scholars in the region.”

YGG SEA said it is committed to supporting locally developed play-to-earn games within the region. It will also focus on acquiring NFTs that are uniquely suited to the needs and interests of SEA’s player base. 

Furthermore, YGG SEA will help locally developed play-to-earn games go global. YGG SEA, similar to the parent entity, wants to bring the Web2 community into Web3 space through GameFi.