Andreessen Horowitz backs blockchain-game developer Azra Games

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led a $15 million seed round for Azra Games. The startup is focused on building mass-market blockchain-based strategy role-playing games and NFTs.

We are AZRA! And our vision to bring fun to blockchain gaming has been funded with $15m by Andreesen Horowitz (@a16z), @NFX, @coinbase, @justinkan, and a carefully chosen group of other investors who will help us succeed.

Thread follows 👇https://t.co/bpFbitaQVE

— Azra Games ⚡️ (@AzraGames) May 19, 2022

Participants in the round included NFX, Coinbase Ventures, Play Ventures, and Franklin Templeton.

a16z earmarked funding through the newly launched fund of $600 million, aimed at “gaming infrastructure and metaverses.”

Co-founder and CEO of Azra Games is Mark Otero, who previously served as the general manager at Electronic Arts (EA). He has released several popular mobile games, including Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.

Azra Games was co-founded by entrepreneurs Sonny Mayugba and Travis Budro, connected with the Azra Games studio that Otero led at EA. A number of other former division specialists joined the startup’s 25-person team.

The raised funds will be directed toward accelerating the development of the debut project provisionally titled Project Arcanas.

The founders noted that many developers and traditional gamers took a negative view of blockchain and NFTs in gaming. According to Mayugba, this stems from an incorrect approach to building such games.

“They really built games with an unsustainable economy. After reading several different white papers, I can say that the bad reputation has certainly been earned,” he said.

According to Otero, to bolster user trust, they rely on the support of venture investors rather than NFT sales.

In April, Richard Garriott, the creator of the popular MMORPG Ultima Online, launched a blockchain- and NFT-based massively multiplayer online game project.