Web3.0 Gaming Infrastructure Provider, Planetarium Secures $32M in Series A Funding

Planetarium Labs, a Web3.0 infrastructure service provider has raised the sum of $32 million in a Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands. 

As announced by the startup, this funding round is an equity round and also enjoined participation from the likes of Samsung Next and the startup’s partners including Krust Universe, the investment arm of South Korean tech giant Kakao, and WeMade, the publisher of play-to-earn game Mir4.

While no valuation was quoted, the funding round is indicative of the growing enthusiasm surrounding Web3.0 gaming, and the perception that Planetarium has the potential to occupy a very pivotal position in the future of this industry.

The Planetarium protocol is set to use the newly acquired capital to build out its network with tools for gaming and player governance according to co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Kijun Seo.

The Planetarium Gaming Ecosystem Framework

Planetarium offers A-Z tooling for game developers to build a decentralized gaming hub with high functionality. The startup’s gaming ecosystem is powered by Libplanet, a software development kit that lets developers create blockchain applications entirely on the Unity game development platform.

“Instead of multiple games sharing a single network, each game runs its application-specific blockchain network and has the freedom to design its governance and customize tokenomics, such as enabling free-to-play,” Seo said. “Afterwards, the players and the gaming community can operate a decentralized network powering each game.”

The exact model described by Seo is what is modeled in the Nine Chronicles game title which has accrued more than 300,000 players since inception. The Nine Chronicles title is backed by the likes of Binance Labs and Ubisoft.

While the funding round kickstarted earlier this year and was completed last month, the current situation in the digital currency ecosystem has not deterred investors, most of whom believe in protocols like Planetarium that develop the right infrastructure upon which the future of key Web3 ecosystems lies.

“We strongly believe that the future is massive decentralized worlds in an open metaverse, which is why we are delighted to support Planetarium Labs’ vision of community-centric blockchain games that empower players with creative freedom and full digital rights,” Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said in a press release.

In line with this, Konvoy Ventures has floated a $150 million fund to back-related gaming protocols, a move that builds on precedents set by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).