May Gaming Roundup

🪩 This Past Month in Web3 Gaming

Welcome to another edition of Delphi’s monthly Gaming Roundup! As always, we have curated the latest and greatest data and news from the past month to keep you updated with everything that’s going on in the Web3 gaming sector. This month’s highlights include:

• Gaming VC deals are up 240% MoM, but funding is still down 29% from March
• Ronin’s RON token continues to be the only token to end the month in the green (this is the 3rd time in a row!)
• Gala Games burns $660M in tokens, two new token standards aim to advance NFT utility, exciting updates from Magic Eden, Axie Origins and STEPN both get approved to be featured on the App Store, and a ton of new game reveals that are worth your attention

💰 Funding Landscape

We saw a slight recovery from the shockingly low number of Web3 gaming deals last month, with the total number of deals increasing by 240% from 5 to 17 and the total funds raised increasing by 66% from $54M to $89.4M. Although funding figures are still 29% below March’s levels and 37% below February’s, this could likely be a result of lower valuations and small raises — something that should be viewed as a healthy correction for the sector. The dramatic increase in deals announced is a welcome surprise, indicating either increased conviction from VCs or an increase in the quality of project pitches. As always, it is important to remember that funding metrics are a lagging indicator of growth, and many of this month’s deals could have been closed as far back as the end of last year.

In other funding-related news, we saw a few new gaming-focused funds and accelerators announced:

👉 Intella X launched a $10M Polygon gaming accelerator. The Web3 arm of Korean games publisher Neowitz raised $12M in January and is committed to helping grow Polygon’s gaming ecosystem with support from Polygon Labs. In addition to the new incubator fund, Intella X also has a Web3-native wallet, NFT marketplace, and decentralized exchange.

👉 Red Beard Ventures (RBV) revealed its new $25M fund and tokenomics accelerator. RBV was first launched as an AngelList syndicate in 2019 and has gone on to deploy ~$40M in 192 companies. The new fund will be focused on accelerating the growth of DeFi and Web3 gaming as well as supporting grants for a joint initiative tokenomics accelerator program with Horizen Labs Ventures called Denarii Labs.

👉 Moonfire Ventures raised $90M for its “data-driven” Fund II alongside an additional $25M for a separate opportunity fund. The firm leverages AI models to scout prospective investments and focuses on Web3, AI, and AR/VR tech in the gaming, health, work, and finance industries.

🤑 Breakdown of Recent Gaming-Related Investments

TinyTap raised $8.5M to further expand the business, with a particular focus on their Web3 initiatives. TinyTap is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands and raised $5M in a Series A round in 2018. The platform provides teachers with no-code tools to create educational games, books, and other content.

Super League Gaming (SLG) announced two private financings of convertible preferred stock amounting to approximately $23.8M. The funding will go towards settling debt, funding ongoing operations, and financing growth initiatives. SLG is a metaverse operations, tooling, and publishing company with ties to Roblox, Minecraft, The Sandbox, and Decentraland. We reported last month on the firm’s recent partnership with LandVault to strengthen its presence in the Gulf Coo