Forte, a leading provider of blockchain solutions for game publishers, announced today that it has secured an additional $725 million in the financing, closing its Series B. The Series B was led by Sea Capital and Kora Management with further support and funding from powerhouse game and media publishers including Animoca Brands, Big Bets (Huuuge Games), Overwolf, Playstudios, Warner Music Group, zVentures (Razer), and blockchain partners Cosmos, Polygon Studios, and Solana Ventures, as well as investors including Griffin Gaming Partners, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Tiger Global.
Forte’s platform allows game publishers to integrate blockchain technologies into their games easily. The platform, which provides seamless, embeddable token wallets, NFT generation and sale, payment requests, and many other similar services, will use the investments it receives to expand and develop its service pool. The company, which wants to accelerate the increase in the number of users, intends to strengthen the digital trade and cooperation between players worldwide.
Forte co-founder and CEO Josh Williams said:
“Over the past 50 years, games have undergone seismic shifts in their business and revenue models, becoming more aligned with players at every turn. First, there were arcade games, where players had to essentially pay per minute of play. Then came home console and PC games, where gamers could play as much as they want after paying once. Next, games moved online, and the free-to-play (F2P) model allowed gamers to play even AAA games as much as they want for free, with only optional in-game / in-app purchases.
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. We believe we are at the forefront of a new technological wave, and blockchain gaming will be even bigger than all the shifts we’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.”
Forte provides game publishers with built-in compatibility and security products. It offers protection solutions in many areas, from money transfer to tax compliance to protect players and publishers’ businesses and intellectual property. Another unique advantage Forte provides for publishers is that it is customizable and interoperable with multiple blockchain technologies.
Daniel Jacobs, founder of Kora Capital, said:
“Forte has incredible traction in the gaming space, due in part to the robustness of its technical and compliance solutions. We partnered with Forte 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. Publishers can grow their businesses with new, innovative technical solutions, and business models. Players are now able to truly own their in-app purchases and virtual goods. This is a win for the entire ecosystem.”
The Forte platform is currently open for invitees and testing purposes only. The platform has more than 40 developer partners and its partners have around 15 million players.
LionTree has served as exclusive financial advisor to Forte this year, bringing its global strategic relationships to Forte as the company continues to accelerate growth. In May, Forte raised $185 million in its Series A, at a $1 billion valuation, led by Griffin Gaming Partners. Today’s announcement brings Forte’s total capital raise to more than $900 million in 2021.
