Startups

Blockchain Gaming Startup Horizon Raises $40 Million Round Led by Brevan Howard, Morgan Creek

The company developed the NFT trading card game Skyweaver.

Horizon team: James Rooney (Legal Counsel); Daniel Racca (Co-founder & Chief Designer); William Hua (Co-founder & Chief Scientist); Deborah Marfurt (CFO); Peter Kieltyka (Co-founder & CEO); Michael Sanders (Co-founder & Chief Storyteller); Ian Ha (Co-founder & Head of Operations)Source: Horizon Blockchain Games

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By Hannah Miller

October 4, 2022 at 11:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Crypto winter has helped chill demand for nonfungible tokens, but that hasn’t stopped startups that use them from raising money. Horizon Blockchain Games said it secured $40 million as it continues to build out the Sequence developer platform, Niftyswap digital-asset marketplace and Skyweaver virtual trading card game.

Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital led the Series A funding round for Toronto-based Horizon, which was founded in 2017. Chief Financial Officer Deborah Marfurt declined to disclose the company’s valuation, but said in an interview that it was higher than in the company’s previous funding round last year. Traditional video gaming companies Ubisoft Entertainment SA and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. also participated in the round. Horizon was valued at $89.5 million after last year’s funding round, according to PitchBook data.

Horizon’s funding round shows that investors are still drawn to NFT-gaming startups, despite declines in overall crypto venture capital investing and slumping sales for digital art and collectibles. Global monthly NFT sales tumbled 85% to $507 million in September compared with a year ago, according to blockchain data tracker CryptoSlam.