- ZEBEDEE secured a $35 million investment to scale its operations to meet growing demand.
- The bitcoin-only game developer has seen its user base grow 10x since September last year.
- Major investors included Square Enix, the AAA game studio behind several global video game IPs such as FINal Fantasy and Tomb Raider.
ZEBEDEEa bitcoin-only game developer, has secured $35 million in a Series B fundraising event to scale circular economies in virtual worlds, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine.
The funding will be used to scale ZEBEDEE’s team, enabling it to meet the needs of its growing user base, which has grown 10x since the startup’s first round of funding last September. The rapid growth, as the company explains, is partly due to innovations partnerships with existing game studios and integrations with blockchain industry experts.
“We are delighted to be in a position where we can confidently grow our team and grow our business even as the macro backdrop becomes increasingly uncertain,” said ZEBEDEE CEO Simon Cowell. “This funding round gives us the opportunity to deliver on our very ambitious roadmap both in terms of expanding our infrastructure to support the hundreds of millions of users who play our partners’ games, as well as hire the top talent needed to ensure each partner has the best possible experience working with ZEBEDEE.”
ZEBEDEE creates a circular economy allowing its users to earn bitcoin on multiple video games by leveraging the Lightning Network, a layer two application built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain that allows users to have access to instant micropayments and low bitcoin cost.
ZEBEDEE offers a suite of application programming interfaces (API), as well as apps for developers which can enable any game developer to create a virtual bitcoin economy. Examples of a virtual economy would be earning bitcoin every time you collect a coin as Mario, or every time you shoot someone in a CS:GO match.
“We’ve seen new monetization methods disrupt the gaming industry in the past, and we believe that integrating Bitcoin directly into games is a new way to extend the connection with gamers and engage them. a way that was never possible before,” said Kenny Lee. , vice-president of the Raine group. “The wide range of use cases of the ZEBEDEE platform provides flexibility for the game designer and allows ZEBEDEE to partner with any developer, from AAA console and PC to hyper-casual mobile. .”
Major investors included Square Enix Holdings, Kingsway Capital and The Raine Group.