Gaming Platform Forte Partners With Venture Studio SuperLayer to Expand Beyond Web3 Gaming

After a strong 2021 in which it passed the $1 billion valuation mark and raised $910 million across two funding rounds, blockchain gaming platform Forte is now looking to branch out to other Web3 verticals through a partnership with startup venture studio SuperLayer.

The Forte platform is intended to allow game publishers to easily integrate blockchain technologies into their titles, including features such as token wallets and non-fungible token (NFT) transactions. Under the strategic partnership, Forte will serve as SuperLayer's preferred crypto payment and liquidity services provider for projects. SuperLayer will, in turn, provide the infrastructure support to expand Forte’s verticals.

Along with the partnership, Forte contributed $5 million to the $25 million funding round that SuperLayer announced in August, which was led by the Polygon blockchain. SuperLayer will use the funds towards companies in its second incubation round, co-founder and managing partner Mahesh Vellank told CoinDesk in an interview. The startup plans to include eight to 10 companies, up from the seven in the first round, and the capital will provide pre-seed investments in each company.

“The core tenets of blockchain are applicable much more broadly than just games, whether it’s e-commerce or loyalty systems or social. There’s really a number of different verticals where we see enormous potential,” Forte Chief Development Officer Linda Chew told CoinDesk.

San Francisco-based SuperLayer was co-founded by managing partners Kevin Chou and Vellank. The pair also helped found Forte, which is now independent, and Rally, a platform where creators can build their own tokenized economies.

Read more: The Gaming Industry Doesn’t Need Web3, but Gamers Might