Sydney-based non-fungible token (NFT) startup Immutable has raised some hefty fresh funding – US$200 million – led by Singapore’s investment fund Temasek.

The Singaporean entity is sometimes referred to as a sovereign wealth fund but generally refers to itself as a commercial investment holding company. Nevertheless, it’s a big one, boasting total assets under management to the tune of about US$300 billion, as of December 2021.

Also participating in the Series C funding round were notable venture capital firms Mirae Asset, ParaFi Capital, Declaration Partners and Tencent Holdings, as well as major blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands.

Immutable last raised funds at a US$410 million valuation in September 2021, closing a US$60 million Series B round at that time. This new funding now gives the Aussie company a valuation of US$2.5 billion.

The NFT gaming-focused firm is the developer of two of the biggest and most promising GameFi projects in the industry, including Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians.

The company is also known for its Ethereum-scaling infrastructure platform Immutable X (IMX). It’s designed to be transactionally faster and more efficient than Ethereum with the goal of helping blockchain companies build games, marketplaces and other applications.

For instance, the popular Sydney-founded RPG auto battler Illuvium, which is in the latter stages of development, uses Immutable X as a layer 2 scaling solution. This frees its users from network gas fees for minting and trading NFTs, keeping players’ transactional costs low in general.

Immutable revealed the funding will be put towards global scaling, including the planned addition of 200 new employees this year, and the expansion of its gaming studio content.

“We’re supercharging our mission to make NFTs mainstream through high-quality blockchain games (and more),” reads a Twitter thread from the Aussie company.

 

Immutable’s Gamestop partnership

In early February meme stock Gamestop (NYSE:GME) announced a partnership with Immutable to launch an NFT marketplace for gaming projects.

The two companies have created a US$100 million fund dedicated to providing grants to game developers and studios to build on top of Immutable X and the NFT marketplace.

GameStop, however, swiftly dumped about US$15 million worth of the IMX tokens not long after the announcement, sinking the Immutable token’s price by about 30 per cent in just a few hours at the time.

Like the rest of crypto market, IMX has been generally trending down since early February. But it’s currently up about 30 per cent over the past 24 hours and trading at US$1.53 on the back of this latest funding injection.

 

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