Play-to-earn (P2E) company Avocado Guild raised $18 million in a Series A led by Animoca Brands, bringing its valuation to $200 million, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk.
- Gaming guilds like Avocado cluster P2E gamers who are able to earn crypto income from titles such as Axie Infinity.
- Guilds often have revenue-sharing agreements and give players initial loans to bring them into the game.
- In an interview with CoinDesk, Avocado co-founder and CEO Brendan Wong described the guild as a “metaverse of metaverses,” because it enables players to participate in multiple virtual worlds.
- “Avocadians,” as users call themselves, not only learn how to earn supplementary income on P2E games, but are trained in how to become Web 3 users, take advantage of opportunities in decentralized finance (DeFi) and become part of a community, Wong told CoinDesk.
- The guild will spread its operations to other P2E games using the funds and purchase non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and land in virtual worlds, Wong said.
- The guild will also boost its scholarship program to over 10,000 members, Wong added. Avocado Guild currently counts 7,000 members, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia.
- Avocado scholars are educated about how to play games like Axie Infinity and sometimes given capital to start playing, after agreeing to a 50-50 revenue split, according to its scholarship application form. Scholars are free to stop the program at any time, but most of them choose to stay in the community even after their scholarship has ended, Wong said.
- Three Arrows Capital, Golden Tree Management, Solana, Hashed and Binance Capital Management participated in the round.
- Axie Infinity has seen its popularity skyrocket, particularly in the Philippines, reportedly leading to a $3 billion valuation for its developer Sky Mavis.