Twitch co-founder's NFT startup nets $35 million in seed funding

Venture Capital • April 1, 2022, 5:13PM EDT
The Block

Fractal, the gaming-focused non-fungible token (NFT) platform founded by Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, has raised $35 million.

Paradigm and Multicoin Capital led the seed round, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Solana Labs, Animoca and Coinbase among others. Paradigm's Matt Huang will also join the company's board.

The platform launched to the public at the close of last year. The platform enables game companies to mint and drop gaming NFTs for fans. It also provides a secondary market for players to sell the NFTs to one another.

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Fractal runs on the Solana blockchain and partnered with Solana-based games at launch. But Kan has said he's betting the intersection of NFTs and gaming will expand with other game styles, like massively multiplayer online games.

Some gamers have pushed back on the use of NFTs in games. Still, venture capitalists have been injecting cash into blockchain-based gaming projects in the past year, and the space continues to grow.

The new funds will be used to hire additional engineers, as well as to recruit and support game developers. Part of the platform's mission is to assist companies looking to include NFTs in their games with launches and community building. 

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Aislinn Keely is a reporter on The Block's policy team holding down the legal beat. She covers court decisions, bankruptcies, regulatory actions and other key moments in the legal sphere, putting them in context for the wider crypto industry. Before The Block, she lent her voice to the NPR affiliate WFUV and helmed Fordham University's student newspaper. Send tips or thoughts on all things policy and legal to [email protected] or follow her on Twitter for updates @AislinnKeely.

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