Gaming startup Untamed Planet raises $24 million in Series A funding from Animoca Brands

Untamed Planet, a blockchain-based gaming startup, raised $24.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands. 

Untamed Planet uses the game creation platform Roblox to recreate natural environments, incorporating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) built on the Solana blockchain.

Further, the startup donates between 50% and 100% of NFT sales to conservation organizations. For instance, micropayments in the game allowed users to donate $10,000 to sponsor a black rhino calf in Kenya's Borana Conservancy in June of 2021. 

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

With the new funding, Untamed Planet plans to partner with nWay, a mobile gaming firm that’s a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, to create a game that benefits conservation efforts called Untamed Metaverse. 

While NFTs have been used to augment charity donations, it appears that social-good use cases are expanding in the blockchain-gaming world too. 

Animoca Brands is a Hong Kong-based software firm that funds blockchain-based games as well as traditional game companies. The firm acquired nWay in December of 2019; the firm went on to partner with the International Olympic Committee to create a blockchain-based game in 2022.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.