Singapore, June 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tatsumeeko, an immersive modern fantasy MMORPG-lite game, today announced the completion of its $7.5M seed funding round, co-led by DeFiance Capital, Delphi Ventures and BITKRAFT Ventures. Others in the round include Binance Labs, Animoca Brands, Dialectic, GuildFi, and more. The game is being developed by the team who launched the initial game concept, Tatsu.GG, the market leader in Discord community gamification and engagement that captured 60 million users and 1.4 Million Discord communities. The multi-million dollar raise will allow Tatsumeeko to continue development on the MMORPG-lite experience to be released on Ethereum and Solana, featuring a high production immersive modern fantasy world and brand that connects people, communities and businesses around the globe.
Many NFT and gaming companies are relying on Discord, an online community platform with over 140 Million monthly users, to engage with their user base. In 2015, Tatsumeeko’s team saw the potential to create a cross-platform gaming ecosystem Tatsu.gg that is now set to evolve and breathe new life into Discord and other online social platforms through a unique gaming ecosystem, helping web3 gaming reach mass adoption while simultaneously fostering strong communities in popular chat applications.
“The ever increasing importance of placing community first, along with the proliferation of Web3 communities relying on Discord as their platform of choice, has surfaced issues within user retention, acquisition and interaction,” said David Lim, CEO and Creative Director of Tatsumeeko. "Our team leverages diverse experiences building triple-A mobile RPG titles to solve these problems by building a social MMORPG with sustainable tokenomics directly into Discord. At the same time, we want to add value to Web2 and Web3 games, brands and NFT projects who can integrate Tatsumeeko through their Discord and engage their communities with fun gameplay,” he added.
The team is developing a rich array of gameplay with support from leading gaming VCs and partners. Built with a mobile user in mind, Tatsumeeko is a Discord-playable role playing game, also available on iOS, Android, and Web, where players battle monsters, explore the world of Ielia, build their communities, meet new friends and foes, and get introduced to crypto and NFTs in a seamless way. Following a successful POC that reached 60,000 MAU and 4.5M in traded items, Tatsumeeko is now ready to tap into new markets with features such as main and side story quests, co-op raids, dimensional invasions, PvE (player versus environment) combat and PvP combat with in-game token rewards $IGS. In the future, the game will expand to other social platforms like QQ, WeChat, and Telegram as well as target multiple communities on Ethereum and Solana, as it plans to utilize in-house infrastructure to synergize with over 2.5B chat application users, fan clubs, youtubers, other metaverses, Web3 games and traditional games.
“Delphi Ventures is proud to announce our seed investment into Tatsumeeko. Their client-agnostic, Discord-first approach also presents a unique opportunity for both web2 and web3 players to have a touchpoint with Tatsumeeko wherever they may be. Most of all, their passion for building and evangelizing their community won us over,” stated Ryan Foo of Delphi Ventures. “We're excited to witness how Tatsumeeko matures over time, and support them in realizing their full vision of a play-and-earn fantasy MMORPG-lite that exists on Discord and mobile.”
“DeFiance Capital is excited to co-lead Tatsumeeko’s seed round. We resonate with the team’s vision of building a modern fantasy RPG with immersive social elements. We have been thoroughly impressed by the team's professionalism and traction they have achieved with their POC and Tatsu.gg discord bot. We believe that the team’s passion for community building, experience in creating triple-A game titles and understanding of the market will make Tatsumeeko one of the top games to watch out for and play when it launches,” said Arthur Cheong, Founder of DeFiance Capital.
"Increasingly, the success of any gaming experience is dependent upon the community that stands behind it, and few can boast the ability to build and grow community the way the team at Tatsumeeko can. The foundation they have set in this capacity through a Discord-first approach is a remarkable achievement of itself, and a fantasy RPG is a natural next step in the team's mission to create experiences that bring digital communities together. We at BITKRAFT are thrilled to be co-leading their seed round and are excited to lend our support to carrying their vision forward," stated Jamie Wallace, Associate at BITKRAFT Ventures.
In early July, Tatsumeeko will begin the initial sale of Aethereal Parcels, special pieces of land that will provide utility and special attributes to the collectors who hold them or other players who interact with them. In November 2021, Tatsumeeko released Meekolony Pass, a series of 10,000 genesis NFTs on Solana, that give holders benefits, rewards, and airdrops for items in Tatsumeeko. Meekolony Pass holders will be able to customize their adventurer avatars in unique ways that traditional players cannot.
About Tatsumeeko
Tatsumeeko is an MMORPG-lite that connects Discord and mobile communities to a modern fantasy RPG world. With roots in the community-led project called Tatsu.GG that has grown to over 1.44M Discord servers and used by over 60M users, Tatsumeeko combines the best elements of idle games, JRPGs and creative building games with heavy social elements and user generated content to create a platform-agnostic, community driven modern-fantasy MMORPG-lite for Discord, iOS, Mobile & Web.
The Tatsumeeko team consists of veterans from triple-A entertainment companies such as SQUARE ENIX, Koei Tecmo, Tencent, Gumi and Toei Animation who have collectively shipped titles including Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Dissidia Final Fantasy, Brave Frontier, WAKFU, Attack on Titan, Sword of the Stars and more.
For more information, please visit Tatsumeeko.com and check out Tatsumeeko on Twitter and Discord for the latest updates.
About BITKRAFT Ventures
BITKRAFT Ventures is a leading investment platform for gaming and Web3 globally, and has been the most active gaming venture capital firm and lead investor in 2020 and 2021, according to research from InvestGame and Drake Star Partners. Founded by industry pioneer Jens Hilgers, BITKRAFT serves a worldwide network that spans many of the industry’s forward-thinking startups and founders—including former executives from the likes of Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Epic Games, Google, and Apple who are working to build and operate the virtual worlds and economies of the future. BITKRAFT operates six venture funds with a total of over $730M in assets under management and has over 90 companies in its global portfolio as of April 2022. BITKRAFT’s experienced international team works closely with exceptional entrepreneurs to create significant value through early candid partnerships, unique domain experience, entrepreneurial history, and a global ecosystem of strategic partners.
Find out more about how BITKRAFT and its portfolio companies are pushing the boundaries of Synthetic Reality® by visiting https://www.bitkraft.vc/vision.
About DeFiance Capital
DeFiance Capital is a leading Web 3 & crypto focused venture capital firm that focuses on investing in Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and Web 3 gaming globally.
Since its inception, the fund has invested in many successful startups globally including Aave, dYdX, Axie Infinity, Ember Sword, etc. Our selected investments can be found at https://www.defiance.capital
