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 traders thus far embrace Blocklords CEO David Johansson, iAngels, Animoca Manufacturers, Large 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 broaden streamer bounties and social questing. Since its inception, Soulbound has tripled its workforce with consultants from the engineering, enterprise improvement, and community-building fields.
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The workforce is presently implementing a Twitch livestream integration for Soulbound-partnered video games and persevering with to enhance consumer expertise. Soulbound’s TGE is anticipated to happen within the second half of 2024.
The cofounders have backgrounds in cell gaming, consumer acquisition, and conventional gaming. The platform’s mission is to “empower the brand new creator financial system” and they’re all about giving creators within the gaming area a brand new strategy to earn their residing.
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 known 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 subsequent 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 identification and flexing on their streams.
The brand new UI and branding goes dwell this month, and sport streaming is central. That is the characteristic that caught on essentially the most with their viewers, so the brand new interface has streaming as an integral part. They’re an enormous supporter of the StreamFi motion and look at Soulbound streamers as a bridge between web2 and web3 gaming.
It capabilities as a cross between Twitch and Steam, the place customers can showcase their accomplishments but in addition have the group interplay part. 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 group “vandalism” interactions the place customers can slap stickers immediately on others’ posts are additionally redefining social gaming for Soulbound customers. Streamers and creators could have entry to contemporary income channels with streaming bounties and a sticker market for artists and collectors.
One of the 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 it is a welcome addition to the gaming area, as there aren’t any advanced contracts however simply straight pay-outs.
And sport studios admire the speedy entry to UGC produced by the bounty applications. Soulbound is a brand new place for them to foster group and encourage interplay, Grooms stated.
Gamers have “slapped” posts with over 20,000 stickers thus far. The Soulbound platform extends past players into the B2B area. Recreation studios leverage Soulbound to amass 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 now not a solo expertise,” stated A.I. Mansbridge, CEO of Soulbound, in an announcement. “Recreation studios, players, and streamers need to attain new audiences. Soulbound is a bridge for conventional players, streamers, and sport studios to the expansive blockchain gaming area.”
“Players, streamers, artists, and builders are uninterested in the gaming establishment,” stated Grooms. “Soulbound is constructing a social platform that shakes up the standard group interplay mannequin. With assist from our traders, we’ll ship a first-of-its-kind avant-garde social gaming expertise.”
Earlier traders included Animoca Manufacturers and Large Mind Holdings.
