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Openfort has raised $3 million in a seed funding to expand development for its Web3 gaming wallet-as-a-service infrastructure for Web3 gaming.
Gumi Cryptos Capital and Maven 11 both led the round, with additional funding from Game7, NGC Ventures and Newman Capital. The funds raised will be used to expand product development and collaborate with Web3 gaming partners to offer the strongest wallet solution for gaming projects.
Openfort serves Web3 gaming studios and gaming platforms, enabling them to build an account
management backend. Games today face the challenge of having abundant generic wallet solutions that are less than ideal for their needs. Openfort said it has a developer-friendly, easy-to-use Web3 gaming
platform. It lets developers granularly customize user experiences for their games with no lock-in.
Openfort was founded by two brothers, Joan and Jaume Alavedra, both engineers who have worked
separately on projects ranging from autonomous driving models to healthtech applications,
market-making in finance, and encryption protocols.
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In 2022, prior to founding Openfort, the duo participated in and won crypto hackathons hosted by ETHOnline and Encode Club. Subsequently, they joined the PearX Accelerator to bring Openfort to production. Today, Openfort provides web3 games with the best technology foundation for managing and scaling crypto accounts for gamers.
“Web2 hit games like Clash of Clans are accustomed to monitoring and controlling all aspects of
their game economies,” said Joan Alavedra, cofounder of Openfort, in a statement. “By offering programmable player management we provide the power needed for the next hit games in web3.”
“Account Abstraction offers the best foundation technology for handling Web3 gaming customer
accounts, enabling Web3 games to offer Web2 quality user experiences while maintaining Web3
functionality.” said Rui Zhang, managing partner at Gumi Cryptos Capital, in a statement. “Openfort is the technology leader for this emerging vertical and use case.”
Openfort, which has been in private beta, supports Unity, Unreal Engine, and React. It has no setup fees
and handles everything, addressing developers’ requirements for embedded accounts, enhanced
end-user experience, and transaction processing. The company said it is building the mobile SDK
next for mobile gaming.
“One of the biggest obstacles to wider adoption of verticals like gaming within Web3 is the still bad
end-user experience,” said Balder Bomans, managing partner at Maven 11, in a statement. “With the implementation of Account Abstraction (AA) SDKs, gaming application developers can start to offer web2-like user experience, while at the same time offering the benefits of web3. Openfort is building the key infrastructure for interacting with AA, which will allow gaming developers to build customizable wallets with a great user experience which we believe is critical for further adoption of crypto gaming use cases.”
Openfort is working with game DAOs like Merit Circle and gaming platforms like Tacter. Companies
can schedule a demo and sign up for Openfort. Openfort’s near-term plans include rolling out multi-chain support in its dashboard and expanding its capabilities with integrations with gaming backends like Playfab or Pragma. Miko Matsumura of Gumi Cryptos Capital will speak at our GamesBeat Summit 2023 event.
The company started in September 2022, and it has raised $3.5 million to date. It has a team of four people. As for the inspiration, the founders said in an email to GamesBeat, “Jaume and Joan, looking at the world of blockchain, realized its potential was shackled by numerous challenges. As passionate builders, they saw vast opportunity in the concept of account abstraction, and knew they could turn it into something game-changing.”
They added, “Their journey included developing a Web3 version of Super Smash Bros in a victorious hackathon, an experience that spotlighted the limitations in the Web3 gaming. It was this frustration that cemented their belief: user experience is the key to welcoming the next generation of players and use cases. That’s how Openfort was born, their solution and contribution to the Web3 gaming world. This gaming wallet service is their commitment to improving the player experience, simplifying the complex, and making Web3 more accessible and fun for everyone.”
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