Web3 Gaming Platform Ajuna Secures $5M in Fresh Private Financing

The startup will use the new funds, as well as the $2 million it raised in its seed round, to fund its expansion.

Ajuna Network, a decentralised gaming platform, has raised $5 million in a new private funding round led by blockchain venture capital firm CMCC Global. The announcement came on the heels of the launch of the startup's "Awesome Ajuna Avatars" non-fungible token (NFT) game collection, which is based on the company's flagship game, BattleMogs.

Fundamental Labs previously led a $2 million seed round in February 2022 for the gaming platform. OKX Blockdream Ventures, Signum Capital, and Animoca Brands also participated in the funding round, as did BloGa Tech AG, Ajuna's parent company.

According to a statement obtained by CoinDesk on Friday, Ajuna offers a product suite that allows developers to use leading game development engines - Unreal and Unity - to create decentralised games, making it easier for both traditional developers and gamers to enter Web 3 gaming. According to the company, the game engines are run in off-chain, trusted execution environments (TEE) linked to the Polkadot blockchain to reduce latency.

Web3 gaming is an umbrella term for games that use cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFT), or blockchain technology to enhance the user experience. The goal of these blockchain-based projects is to empower players and give them more control over their digital identities and assets.

The funding will allow Ajuna to add support for additional game engines, expand on Polkadot, Ethereum, and Polygon, and build out the TEEs. According to the company, Ajuna will also assist in the development and launch of projects on its network.

"We are ecstatic to be leading this funding round into Ajuna. "The platform enables studios to incorporate immutable digital assets into their games, resulting in powerful new gaming experiences," said CMCC Global founding partner Charlie Morris.

Investing in Web3-related projects has gained traction this year, despite the fact that investment in cryptocurrency companies fell 91% year on year in January, according to CoinDesk. According to the analysis, the Web3 industry received the second most investment dollars last month, trailing only Infrastructure projects.

In a December interview with CoinDesk, David Pakman, managing partner and venture investing head at crypto-focused VC firm CoinFund, stated that he expects crypto investments to continue to focus on areas such as layer 1 and layer 2 blockchains, NFTs, gaming, and the Web3 development stack, which is maturing enough to entice Web2 developers to make the switch.

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