South Korean game developer and blockchain company Wemade raised has raised $46m in an investment round, which included a cash injection from Microsoft.
The money was raised from three companies in total, Shinhan Asset Management, Kiwoom Securities and Microsoft Corporation.
This doesn’t mean Microsoft is jumping into NFTs but it does indicate its growing interest in Web3.
“This is a meaningful investment by reputable financial and strategic investors with proven track records”, said Wemade chief executive officer Jang Hyeon-guk.
The company’s strategy is to continue on this trajectory of attracting capital and investing into building a “global digital economy platform”, citing the development of Wemade and Wemix in tandem.
The company recently launched its WEMIX3.0 blockchain mainnet, complete with the creation of DeFi platform WEMIX.Fi and WEMIX$ – a “100% collateralized stablecoin”.
The news statement also briefly mentioned the company was expecting to soon launch a new platform named NILE which is said to support NFT and DAO.
The company already has a well-established Wemix NFT auction website, which is perfectly in line with its plans for an economy platform.
TechCrunch reported that Microsoft’s investment in Wemade was $14.8m, with Shinhan Asset Management and Kiwoom Securities’ investments sitting at $21.2m and $10.5m, respectively. However, we haven’t been able to independently verify this at the time of writing.
Other tech giants have already made their interests in the blockchain technology clear, with the metaverse a prime example of how value can be created in the space.
Consultancy firm McKinsey & Company issued a 77-page report outlining how the metaverse can be worth $5 trillion by 2030, so it will definitely be interesting to see whether Microsoft is going to make any further moves into blockchain, Web3 or NFTs as others have already done.
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has already expressed his reservations when it comes to NFTs, so we wouldn’t hold our breaths waiting for the company to make bold moves any time soon.
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