Blockchain Game Developer Horizon Raises $40M in Series A Funding Round

Horizon, the developer of non-fungible token (NFT) trading card game Skyweaver, has raised $40 million in a Series A funding round, the firm said on Tuesday.

The blockchain-based gaming startup plans to use the capital to build out its Sequence developer platform, Niftyswap marketplace and Skyweaver game and to hire more staff.

Skyweaver is an online game where players can battle other players using fantasy-based trading cards in the form of NFTs, which are digital assets on a blockchain that represent ownership of virtual or physical items. As of June, more than 400,000 accounts had been created on the platform.

The round was led by Brevan Howard Digital and Morgan Creek Digital and included investments from traditional gaming companies Ubisoft (UBI) and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO). Other participants included Polygon, Bitkraft Ventures, CMT Digital, Quantstamp, Round13 Capital, Xchange and Everyrealm, as well as individual investors, including Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget and Axie Infinity co-founder Aleksander Larsen.

Bloomberg was the first to report on the funding round. No valuation was disclosed, though Chief Financial Officer Deborah Marfurt said it was higher than the company's previous funding round last year, when it was valued at $89.5 million, according to the Bloomberg report, which cited PitchBook data.

Read more: Temasek to Lead $100M Funding Round in NFT and Metaverse Investor Animoca Brands: Report

UPDATE (Oct. 4, 13:50 UTC): Updates sourcing in headline and lead paragraph.