Game developer and publishing studio Faraway will launch its first multiplayer browser game on the Solana blockchain after raising $21 million in a financing round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
The Miami-based startup is leveraging blockchain technology to create its flagship game, Mini Royale: Nations, as the first live multiplayer game on Solana, one of the world's fastest-growing blockchain platforms.
"Blockchain technology will unlock the potential for truly player-driven, open economies and will usher in the next wave of gaming and virtual worlds," said Faraway CEO Alex Paley.
Solana and venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital also participated in the funding round. Founded in July, the startup is now backed by $29 million in investment capital. It raised $8 million in an August seed round also led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, a Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm. Faraway has a team of 40 people based across the world.
Mini Royale: Nations, a first-person shooter game, will be among the first wave of games designed the Web 3.0, a term that describes the next-generation of the internet. The idea is to build a more transparent internet with the help of technologies like blockchain, cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
A blockchain is a database of digital transactions stored across a network of computers. Once a record is added to the blockchain, it is almost impossible to change or hack. Blockchain is the underlying technology that supports cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and NFTs, units of data stored on blockchain that can be used to represent unique items, like songs, costumes or virtual avatars.
Faraway is among a slew of blockchain and cryptocurrency firms that flocked to Miami this year after local leaders began recruiting those companies to the city. The goal is to establish Miami as a global center for blockchain and cryptocurrency innovation.
"We are still at the beginning of the blockchain gaming era and we're about to see teams like Faraway catapult gaming into the next wave of what's possible," said Amy Wu, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
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