Participated · Seed · Apr 2022

Defy Labs develops DEFY, a move-to-earn augmented reality (AR) game and related tools that allow users to view and interact with NFTs and digital collectibles in the real world. Its gameplay involves hacking missions that require players to explore physical surroundings with AR assistance. Rewards are distributed to players in the form of cryptocurrency and NFTs. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Ben Pember. Defy plans to use the funds for team expansion, continued game development, and improvements to the mobile app's AR features. An alpha version of the mobile app is scheduled to launch in mid-April.

Participated · Seed · Feb 2022

Ethlas builds an integrated Web3 gaming ecosystem that aims to let players carry progress, items, and identity across games while making onboarding seamless. Its core products include a Hybrid Authentication Infrastructure that combines traditional social logins with blockchain interoperability and EthlasPay, a cloud-powered blockchain payment solution that aggregates transactions and reconciles them on-chain. The company has developed over 30 games and recorded more than 15 million gameplays, and is led by CEO Wui Ngiap Foo, the former head of technology at Grab. Ethlas operates with a team of about 20 game builders across Singapore, the Philippines and the United States. It is expanding cross-chain through a partnership with LayerZero to support Polygon, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche and the BNB Smart Chain. Ethlas also partners with projects like Doodles and DeFi Kingdoms to enable NFTs as playable characters and uses a multi-layered security approach with collaboration from GrabDefence. The company is positioning itself as a platform for both gamers and developers and has pursued features like gamified DeFi education via its PokPok DeFi infrastructure. Ethlas is a free-to-play, play-to-earn GameFi metaverse built on the Polygon chain that enables casual gamers to win and encash cryptocurrency through familiar games. Its in-game cryptocurrency is called $XGEM (Exchange Genesis Ethlas Medium) and the platform plans to mint a first NFT series, Komos, with five tiers intended to boost gameplay. The Komo NFTs are modelled after Komodo dragons and were scheduled to be available before end-February 2022. Ethlas is working with game studios to launch titles on its platform under a revenue-sharing model. The company said it will use the US$2.7M Seed funding to expand operations, grow its team, and develop its product. Ethlas is led by Gennady ‘Ari’ Medvinsky and Elston Sam alongside two other founders (one to be disclosed), and is headquartered in Singapore with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Manila.