Axie Infinity Raising $150M at $3B Valuation: Report

Blockchain-enabled play-to-earn video game Axie Infinity is raising about $150 million in a Series B funding round at a $3 billion valuation, according to reporting on Monday by The Information.

• Citing two unnamed sources “with direct knowledge of the deal,” The Information wrote that venture giant Andreessen Horowitz is leading the round.
• The monster-battling game, which uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to reward players, had revenue of 64,933.71 ether ETH$1,966.58, which was worth $220.32 million, in September. That was down from a record $342 million in August, data center Axie World shows.
• But September’s figure still represents a nearly 3,000-fold year-over-year growth.
• Axie Infinity raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round that was announced in May, according to Crunchbase. That round’s lead investor was Libertus Capital, and other investors included Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the Collaborative Fund and 500 Startups Vietnam.
• In 2019 , Axie Infinity raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round that was led by mobile game publisher Animoca Brands.
• Launched by blockchain video game company Sky Mavis in 2018, Axie Infinity came into the spotlight in the early third quarter of this year as yield compression in bitcoin and decentralized finance (DeFi) drove hot money into gaming and NFTs.
• The game has become a significant source of income in such countries as Brazil, the Philippines, Venezuela and Vietnam. It’s become so popular in the Philippines that the government has expressed its intention to tax Axie players.
• Axie Infinity’s AXS token hit a record high on Monday after Axie announced last week that it would distribute over $60 million worth of tokens to its early adopters and launch staking capabilities.

UPDATE (Oct. 4, 21:56 UTC): Updated with additional background in sixth, seventh and eighth bullet points.

UPDATE (Oct. 4, 22:12 UTC): Updated with information about Axie’s previous fundraising in fourth and fifth bullet points.