Immutable and King River Capital, with support from Polygon Labs, have announced the creation of the ‘ecosystem-agnostic’ Inevitable Games Fund (IGF). The Fund aims to tap into the advancing field of Web3 gaming by leveraging the expertise and resources of its founding partners to pinpoint promising investment opportunities.
Aim to Shape the Future of Web3 Gaming
King River Capital will lead the Fund’s investment strategy, utilizing Immutable and Polygon Labs’ Web3 gaming insights and deal-sourcing capabilities. The collaboration stresses a shared commitment to advancing innovation within the Web3 gaming arena.
IGF, which caps its funding at $100 million, targets professional and sophisticated investors. It has garnered significant initial commitments, including a notable investment from Alpha Wave Ventures, supported by Alpha Wave Global and Chimera Capital.
Other contributors include Merit Circle, a leading entity in Web3 gaming, and investments from several prominent figures within the tech and gaming industries, including Steve Kokinos, of Sonic Boom Ventures and former CEO of Algorand; James and Robbie Ferguson, Co-Founders of Immutable; and Sandeep Nailwal, Co-Founder of Polygon Labs.
Investment Strategy and Early Successes
The Fund has already earmarked a series of promising early-stage investments, highlighting a diverse range of gaming projects. These include Pixelmon and Metalcore, an ambitious open-world game offering large-scale PVP battles and AI challenges.
Guild of Guardians and My Pet Hooligan are also part of the portfolio, each bringing unique gameplay and anticipation from the gaming community. Guild of Guardians, a highly anticipated game on the Immutable platform, has already attracted over 1 million pre-registrations before its release in the second quarter of 2024.
The combination of King River Capital’s investment acumen and the digital asset expertise of Immutable and Polygon Labs positions IGF to make impactful investments across the global video game industry. Furthermore, the Fund aims to support game studios, Web3 infrastructure, and gaming experiences that have the potential to redefine digital entertainment, ‘regardless of the platform’.
Web3 Gaming’s Growth
Zeb Rice, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at King River Capital, commented on the Fund: “Spending on video games exceeds the global revenue from movies, streaming TV and the music industry, combined, and it is ripe for a huge technology shift.
He continued, “Just as mobile gaming went from virtually zero in 2008 to 79% of gamers playing mobile today,we believe a similar shift has only just begun to Web3 technology. The Fund provides investors with an opportunity to gain unique access to the best Web3 gaming projects globally and is designed to benefit from this multi-hundred billion dollar shift in spending to this disruptive new technology.”
A recent analysis by Messari highlights the significant market share held by Immutable and Polygon in blockchain gaming development. Messari says, “They’ve probably got ~70% market share, though it’s difficult to measure precisely.”
Overall, this growth highlights the timely nature of the Inevitable Games Fund’s launch, as it seeks to capitalize on and contribute to the expanding landscape of web3 gaming.