Animoca Brands Leads $18M Series A for Play-to-Earn Upstart Avocado Guild

The guild wants to empower members to participate in virtual worlds and Web 3.

By Eliza Gkritsi

Nov 24, 2021 at 2:00 a.m. UTC

Updated Nov 24, 2021 at 3:40 p.m. UTC

An illustration of the Avocado Guild metaverse. (Avocado Guild)

Eliza Gkritsi

Eliza Gkritsi is CoinDesk's crypto mining reporter based in Asia.

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Play-to-earn (P2E) company Avocado Guild raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Animoca Brands, bringing its valuation to $200 million, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk. QCP Soteria Node also led the round.

Three Arrows Capital, Solana Ventures, Polygon Studios, Hashed, Binance Smart Chain’s $1 Billion Growth Fund and executives of GoldenTree Asset Management also participated in the investment.
Gaming guilds like Avocado cluster Platform to Employment (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 in non-fungible tokens (NFT) 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 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 are lent NFT assets that the guild purchases from gaming companies, after agreeing to a 50-50 revenue split, according to a company representative. 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.
Axie Infinity has seen its popularity skyrocket, particularly in the Philippines, reportedly leading to a $3 billion valuation for its developer Sky Mavis.

UPDATE (Nov. 24, 05:25 UTC): Adds QCP Soteria Node in lead.

UPDATE (Nov. 24, 10:00 UTC): Clarifies round participants in first bullet and scholarship program.

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