Nifty League Raises $5 Million Seed Investment Round Led by RSE Ventures to Expand its NFT Gaming Metaverse

Today, we are thrilled to announce the close of a $5 million seed investment round led by RSE Ventures (“RSE”), a New York-based private investment firm founded by Stephen M. Ross and Matt Higgins! Additional investors in the round include Lerer Hippeau, Spartan Group, VaynerFund, Avocado Guild, EVOS Gaming, Private Ventures Group, Advancit W3, TEOH Capital, 3SE Holdings, y2z Ventures, NyanHeroes, DraftKings Co-Founder Matthew Kalish, and Gallery Media Group CEO Ryan Harwood, among others.

Milestone

This milestone is incredibly exciting for our team and community.

The Nifty League Co-Founders, Andrew Mahoney-Fernandes (NiftyAndy), Ali Timnak (Snarfy) and Mike Scott (NiftySpike) felt strategic venture investors with a deep understanding of the gaming and play-and-earn space would help supercharge our ecosystem of owners, renters, guilds, partners and overall community. As many of you know, our ultimate vision is to bring competitive gaming to Web3 — moving away from play-and-earn (“P2E”) into a new era of compete-and-earn (“C&E”) by offering a fun and engaging gaming ecosystem. Although Nifty League will be managed via the Nifty League DAO in the future, we believe raising a seed round with strategic VCs and individuals with proven track records of success in tech, Web3, and beyond, will help us achieve the scale we envision even faster.

Our Team

“This milestone is a testament to the strength of our community and vision for what Web3 gaming can become,” said Andrew Mahoney-Fernandes, CEO of Nifty League. “For us, it’s always been about empowering our users to have a real voice in shaping the growth and evolution of our platform, and NFTs make it possible to add that next level of dimension to our games. This new funding will allow us to bring our community’s vision to light as we continue expanding our game offerings while building out the Niftyverse and its developer ecosystem.”

Ali Timnak, Nifty League’s Co-Founder and CTO, who spent the prior 8 years at Activision and grew up gaming and creating games, is excited about the future of web3 gaming. “We have been given a brilliant opportunity to change the gaming scene for the better by leveraging the extreme accessibility of web3. By creating community-led games that are fun, reward competitive play and allow for true player ownership, we give people the ability to share the success of the platform with the most competitive and loyal players in the community.” said Timnak.

Having developed and directed his animated shows for Nickelodeon and Disney, worked with Oscar-nominated David O’Reilly on Adult Swim idents, and created music videos for Goldfish, Mike’s extensive background in art, design and animation undoubtedly gives Nifty League an edge on other web3 gaming projects. “Nifty League is the culmination and combination of so many passions of mine, and I’m thrilled that our new partners see the magic too. I couldn’t be more excited for the future,” said Mike Scott, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Nifty League.

Investors Thoughts

“NFT gaming has exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry, and while most lack the commitment and community it takes to sustain success, Nifty League came roaring out of the gate with one of the most innovative P2E games to hit the market — establishing their position as a dominant force in this new frontier of the metaverse,” said Matt Higgins, Co-founder and CEO of RSE Ventures. “Nifty League’s minting process was brilliant, with characters reflecting tremendous artistry and ingenuity from the community. The concept of player input is simply lip-service on many other platforms, but Nifty League actually forged that commitment into the blockchain.”

This commitment has caught the attention of players, investors, and crypto enthusiasts alike.

Higgins continued: “Breakout success happens when you act on opportunity before the tipping point of evidence, and I believe the shift to P2E is a prime example of this given it’s a natural extension of what’s already happening with gaming in real life. Nifty League’s potential is limitless, and we’re thrilled to partner with Andrew and team as they continue scaling the platform and roll out new gaming options and experiences for their community.”

“The Nifty League team realizes that success in Web3 gaming will depend on creating games that are legitimately fun — and fostering rock-solid player communities behind them,” said Ben Lerer, Managing Partner at Lerer Hippeau. “We’re only at the beginning of competitive P2E gaming, and this team is uniquely positioned to create one of the strongest ecosystems in the space.”

Supporting the Round

In order to support the round of venture funding, the Co-Founders have agreed to mint an additional 33M NFTL tokens. In accordance with our agreed upon vesting schedule, 5.5M NFTL will be minted on the 15th of every month, starting March 15th, 2022, for 6 months. Half of the minted NFTL will be allocated to our VCs, and the remaining half will be deposited into the Nifty League treasury, which will be transferred to the DAO entity and used to fund various purchases.

Final Thoughts

We’d like to thank our devoted DEGEN community for your commitment as we welcome our new investors to the Nifty League family! We are BOLOISH 🙌 as ever for the future of the Nifty League ecosystem.

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