Sea Capital backs $700m funding in blockchain games platform Forte

Sea Capital, the venture capital unit of Sea Limited, has co-anchored the $725-million Series B funding in blockchain gaming platform Forte, according to an announcement.

Sea Capital was joined by Kora Management as co-anchor in the funding round, which was also supported by powerhouse game and media publishers, including Animoca Brands, Big Bets (Huuuge Games), Overwolf, Playstudios, Warner Music Group, and zVentures (Razer).

Blockchain partners Cosmos, Polygon Studios, and Solana Ventures, as well as investors including Griffin Gaming Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Tiger Global also participated.

The latest funding round comes less than a year after Forte hit the unicorn status when it raised $185 million in its Series A. Today’s announcement brings Forte’s total capital raise to more than $900 million in 2021.

Josh Williams, Forte co-founder and CEO, said the games industry has grown at each turn as it aligns more and more closely with players, and today it is the largest form of entertainment globally – larger than film and music combined – with nearly $180 billion in annual revenue.

He added that blockchain gaming will be even bigger than all the shifts they’ve seen before.

“Forte’s mission is to prepare all game developers, big and small – whether you already have a AAA title with millions of players or you are building a blockchain game from the ground up – to be successful in this new landscape,” Williams said in a statement.

Daniel Jacobs, Kora Capital’s founder, said they partnered with the company because of its “ethos of building a platform that is simple to integrate without limiting developer flexibility or control, building for the long-term, solving scalability challenges that limit transaction throughput on blockchains today, mitigating high latency and costs associated with blockchain transactions, as well as future-proofing with blockchain portability and cross-chain interoperability.”

Through this partnership, Jacobs added that publishers can grow their businesses with new, innovative technical solutions, and business models. Players can now truly own their in-app purchases and virtual goods.

Forte’s end-to-end platform enables the emergence of community economics, a system where the interests of game developers and players are aligned, leading to healthier, sustainable game communities.