Venly raises $23M for blockchain-agnostic services for games and ecommerce

Venly has raised $23 millin for its blockchain-agnostic services such as digital wallets for games and ecommerce.

Based in Antwerp and Beerlin, the company provides wallet, non-fungible token (NFT), and marketplace services regardless of the type of blockchain used.

Courtside Ventures led the round with participation from Transcend Fund, Coinbase Ventures, Tioga Capital, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Fortino, Plug and Play, Leadblock Partners, Imec Istart, Powerhouse and Alpaca VC. Venly will use the funding to develop products centered around new benefits to web 3 users, with a close focus on gaming as well as ecommerce.

Venly creates tools and products empowering web 2 businesses to leverage web 3 technology and integrate it seamlessly into their own business processes without sacrificing user experience or security.

The company’s application programming interface (API) platform delivers groundbreaking innovation to prominent companies in the blockchain gaming space, including The Sandbox, Aavegotchi, Bondly, Shopify, and other industry leaders.

Venly will launch an accelerator track for game studios and web 3 startups to support the entire blockchain ecosystem. Startups will be able to use Venly licenses at a discounted rate while getting guidance and investments from the Venly Accelerator team and ecosystem of partners. The third focus point will be to grow and develop the Venly marketplace to make it “the most user-friendly and widely-used option on the market.

In the coming months, Venly will focus on hiring top talent to continue spearheading innovation, as well as striking new partnerships with industry players. In this sense, launching the accelerator track (aka “Venly Accelerator”) will bring new connections, too.

On the tech side, Venly will be incorporating robust gaming SDKs (software development kits), making gaming its most immediate focus due to fast scaling opportunities. Next, the company will be further developing its marketplace for next-level user experience.

On the operations side, Venly will also be launching the VENS Token, an internal token to drive loyalty and engagement of the Venly Market users. It will also continue to work hard to keep meeting global compliance requirements.

“The problem today is that most developers and end-users have difficulty interacting with web 3 technology. It needs to be more aligned with Web2 usability, which is exactly what the Venly platform provides. Our APIs and services allow a Web2 company to seamlessly integrate with web 3,” says Tim Dierckxsens, CEO of Venly, in a statement. “Moreover, we want to focus on our marketplace for the mainstream users. The Venly NFT marketplace is easier to use than any other platform out there.”

“The Venly platform offers game developers the ability to easily launch Web3 experiences,” said Kai Bond, partner at Courtside Ventures, in a statement. “We believe that the next big growth in the NFT ecosystem will come from mainstream users interacting with their favorite IP.”

Venly previously went by Arkane Network.