Immutable, a carbon-neutral, scalable platform for trading NFTs on Ethereum, this week announced it secured $200 million in Series C financing led by Temasek, with investments from Animoca Brands and Tencent, bringing its valuation to $2.5 billion. ParaFi Capital, Princeville Capital, Arrington Capital, Mirae Asset and Liberty Global also joined the round as new investors. King River Capital, Prosus Ventures, AirTree Ventures, Declaration Partners, Fabric Ventures, Possible Ventures and Alameda Research all increased their existing investments.
This capital will be used to fuel Immutable’s plans for global expansion, accelerate the company’s growth by investing in the Immutable X platform, and scale its gaming studio, including its flagship games Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians. The company also plans to hire 200 new employees globally over the next 12 months predominantly in sales, marketing, engineering and product. Additional purposes include expansion into new verticals, support for gaming partners, customer acquisition, and possible mergers or acquisitions. Current companies building on Immutable X include GameStop, TikTok, Opensea, Ember Sword, Illuvium, GreenPark Sports, and Gary Vee (Vee Friends).
Immutable X is built using StarkWare’s StarkEx zero-knowledge proof technology, which rolls up hundreds of thousands of transactions into one while positioning users to safely secure digital assets directly on Ethereum. This enables Immutable to provide game developers and all NFT creators with strong throughput and zero gas fees for trading and minting NFTs in a carbon-neutral environment, empowering them to create billions of low-cost, in-game assets that can easily be bought and sold.
“We’re thrilled to double down on our partnership with Immutable. We’re excited to explore integrations with Immutable X across Animoca’s portfolio of content – bringing next-level scale, security, and liquidity to the next generation of blockchain games,” said Yat Siu, co-founder and Chairman of Animoca.
The company also added four new C-suite executives. COO Gill Findlay’s resume includes stints at AirTree Ventures, Vamp and Australian unicorn SafetyCulture. Chief growth officer John Boris was CEO of IfOnly, CMO of Shutterfly, and also held leadership roles at LonelyPlanet and other US-based tech-enabled companies. Justin Hulog, now chief studio officer, worked with Riot Games, where he was general manager, Southeast Asia, and at Say Media where he held several key leadership roles. Chief people officer Katherine Rau was with Culture Amp and other Australian tech companies such as Unlockd and Catch.com.au.
“Immutable is locked in on developing a leading, ambitious, and dependable web3 ecosystem for a new era of creators that desire scalable results in the world’s fastest growing industry,” said James Ferguson, CEO of Immutable. “Our investment partners understand the power and potential of the Immutable X platform and will play an integral role in this next phase of our growth. We are also excited to welcome new executive team members who will help execute on our aggressive business and growth plans.”
“We are at a pivotal point in which the user experience creates a critical path to success for all emerging technologies, and Immutable’s platform makes building NFT businesses simple, cost-effective, and extremely easy to monetize,” said AirTree’s John Henderson. “We are excited to be on this journey to foster greater adoption of powerful technology that is poised to change the way digital games are played.”
Earlier this month, GameStop announced a strategic partnership to launch its new NFT marketplace on the Immutable X platform. The partnership includes a $100 million co-fund targeting the advancement of high-impact NFT gaming projects.