Soulbound raised $4 million in funding for its Web3 social gaming ecosystem.
The corporate’s newest spherical concluded within the second quarter of 2024 with participation from main gaming and blockchain communities, stated Casey Grooms, cofounder of Soulbound, in an interview with GamesBeat.
The corporate’s buyers to this point embrace Blocklords CEO David Johansson, iAngels, Animoca Manufacturers, Massive Mind Holdings, NGC Ventures, Panony, Delta Blockchain Fund and extra.
The funding will advance Puerto Rico-based Soulbound’s work by enabling it to determine gaming partnerships, add social interactions, and develop streamer bounties and social questing. Since its inception, Soulbound has tripled its crew with consultants from the engineering, enterprise growth, and community-building fields.
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The crew is presently implementing a Twitch livestream integration for Soulbound-partnered video games and persevering with to enhance person expertise. Soulbound’s TGE is anticipated to happen within the second half of 2024.
The cofounders have backgrounds in cell gaming, person acquisition, and conventional gaming. The platform’s mission is to “empower the brand new creator economic system” and they’re all about giving creators within the gaming house a brand new option to earn their dwelling.
Grooms stated they moved away from the DAO mannequin (with Saga) to rebuild a startup that would perform extra successfully. They began with a platform referred to as Popdrip that was centered on NFT (non-fungible token) sticker interactions and posting social content material.
However Grooms stated this effort developed into Soulbound with the addition of sport questing. The platform launched in March and April, and has grown to combine the streaming and bounty applications. They’re seeing steady progress over the previous few months.
Soulbound stated it’s poised to onboard the following era of gamers, streamers, and creators into eb3 gaming. Customers can earn non-transferable DRIP tokens for partaking with Soulbound and partnered video games, showcasing their favourite gaming accomplishments linked to their distinctive gaming id and flexing on their streams.
The brand new UI and branding goes reside this month, and sport streaming is central. That is the function that caught on essentially the most with their viewers, so the brand new interface has streaming as an integral element. They’re a giant supporter of the StreamFi motion and examine Soulbound streamers as a bridge between web2 and web3 gaming.
It features as a cross between Twitch and Steam, the place customers can showcase their accomplishments but in addition have the neighborhood interplay element. These interactions are captured within the “slapping” mechanism. Artists can add their stickers to the sticker market, which is a pleasant new income stream for them, Grooms stated.
Gameplay movies, Twitch clips, and neighborhood “vandalism” interactions the place customers can slap stickers immediately on others’ posts are additionally redefining social gaming for Soulbound customers. Streamers and creators may have entry to contemporary income channels with streaming bounties and a sticker market for artists and collectors.
Probably the most thrilling options Soulbound shall be introducing is an in-stream wager mechanism, the place customers can guess whether or not a streamer will do one thing in-game (like a sure transfer) or one thing on the stream, like sneezing. It’s like Polymarket meets Twitch.
For collaborations, Soulbound works with Web3 and Web2 video games to launch activations, utilizing bounties as a reward for streamers or content material creators. They’ve heard from platform customers that this can be a welcome addition to the gaming house, as there are not any advanced contracts however simply straight pay-outs.
And sport studios respect the fast entry to UGC produced by the bounty applications. Soulbound is a brand new place for them to foster neighborhood and encourage interplay, Grooms stated.
Gamers have “slapped” posts with over 20,000 stickers to this point. The Soulbound platform extends past avid gamers into the B2B house. Recreation studios leverage Soulbound to accumulate and work together with customers by launching streamer bounty swimming pools, featured quests and focused promotions via data-driven profiles and user-generated content material.
The corporate is presently onboarding two new video games per week to its platform. They’ve hosted streaming activations with Shrapnel and Echelon, attracting over 200 gamers in aggressive tournaments with over 10,000 minutes streamed.
“Gaming is not a solo expertise,” stated A.I. Mansbridge, CEO of Soulbound, in a press release. “Recreation studios, avid gamers, and streamers need to attain new audiences. Soulbound is a bridge for conventional avid gamers, streamers, and sport studios to the expansive blockchain gaming house.”
“Avid gamers, streamers, artists, and builders are bored with the gaming established order,” stated Grooms. “Soulbound is constructing a social platform that shakes up the normal neighborhood interplay mannequin. With help from our buyers, we are going to ship a first-of-its-kind avant-garde social gaming expertise.”
Earlier buyers included Animoca Manufacturers and Massive Mind Holdings.
