MONTREAL–(BUSINESS WIRE)–BRAVO READY, creator of BR1: Infinite Royale, a first-of-its-kind gaming experience that marries NFT technology and win-to-earn smart contract automation, today announced the completion of an initial $3 million seed round led by top technology companies and investors in the gaming and web3 sectors, including Solana Ventures, 6th Man Ventures, Sino Global Capital, and Shima Capital. The funding will be used to accelerate game and software development.
Evan Ryer, CEO & Co-Founder of BRAVO READY, says, “This isn’t just a new game – it’s a new way to game. It fundamentally reinvents the financial side of being a player. Our mission is to be at the crossroads of great games that people love and a business model that will drive value for all stakeholders, whether you are a gamer, audience member, content creator or game investor, the BR1 ecosystem is designed to drive incentive and reward all while creating a truly next level gaming experience. None of this would be possible without the many Solana Blockchain developers, or the team at Solana Ventures supporting our growth and we are grateful to have them all as partners.”
“We at Solana Ventures are very proud to back BRAVO READY and BR1: Infinite Royale, one of the first shooter games to go live on Solana,” says Justin Barlow, a senior associate at Solana Ventures who led the deal for BR1 and is also advising the BR1 team. “BR1 has introduced an action-packed game that is redefining the rules of the battle royale genre and combining utility-based NFTs with high-quality artwork and graphics. We look forward to supporting the BR1 team in their mission to bring Solana games to the masses.”
“Combining risk-based tokenomics with functional NFT characters and assets, BR1 is redefining what it means to be a blockchain-enabled game and elevating the much-needed industry standards,” according to Yida Gao, General Partner at Shima Capital. “We infrequently see a team ship quality product as quickly as BR1 and are excited to roll up our sleeves to support the founders and entire team in its next phase of growth.”
Serge Kassardjian, Co-Founder and General Partner at 6th Man Ventures, says, “We are thrilled to back BR1 because the gameplay and economy was unlike anything we have seen in the play-to-earn ecosystem to date. The passion of the community is incredible and is only outdone by the passion of the founders for the game. They are building a new and exciting way to change battle games, and we could not be more excited to watch this team build and change play-to-earn gaming.”
Jon Cohen, CTO & Co-Founder of BRAVO READY, adds that, “In Web3 gaming, the game always needs to come first, and the economic model has to support the game. Providing tangible value for the time players spend in video games requires people to want to spend their time playing that game on a daily or weekly basis. Without a fun game that appeals to a wide audience, the most well thought out economic model will crumble under small demand.”
BR1: Infinite Royale is a first-of-its-kind risk-based shooter and has developed a loyal following thanks to a unique monetary model that allows gamers to pay $1 to spawn and earn SOL for every player killed. There is no start or finish to the game because players can spawn into the game at any time, and the game map is a giant island that supports hundreds of players who spawn on the edges and work their way toward the center. Survival-style gameplay places new characters far from other players with little access to items such as weapons, ammo, consumables or equipment, but towards the center of the island they encounter a higher frequency of players and items. One of Bravo Ready’s key innovations is a generative character-rendering pipeline to produce an infinite number of unique characters. By using a proprietary pathway for randomizing textures, colors and designs, each mesh in the character model is given its own unique sequence of combinations. Once those characters have been generated, the collection is complete and renders those characters in-game for each owner of the NFT. To play the game, visit https://discord.com/invite/br1metaverse
About BRAVO READY
BRAVO READY is a Montreal-based video game studio and maker of the world’s first risk-based shooter, BR1: Infinite Royale, which bridges the gap between NFT technology and win-to-earn smart contract automation. This creates a radically different experience for players by empowering them to create tangible, financial value through the time they commit to playing games and make real-time crypto transactions as a core component of gameplay through playing, renting, and other interactions.
About Solana
Solana is the most performant blockchain in the world. It gives developers the confidence to build for the long term by delivering predictable scaling without compromising security or composability. Solana’s performance is driven by intra-shard parallelism, which is capable of processing thousands of smart contracts at once, and by Proof of History, an innovation in distributed timekeeping that unlocks low-latency, sub-second finality across the global state. To learn more, please visit https://solana.com/.
About Shima Capital
Shima Capital is a venture capital firm based in California focused on supporting cutting-edge blockchain startups. The team consists of native blockchain investors with traditional VC experience and a deep network in Silicon Valley and Asia. They aim to invest in the future with pioneers in blockchain.
About 6th Man Ventures
6th Man Ventures (“6MV”) is a thesis-driven Web3 Fund investing in the most tenacious and disruptive founders across the global crypto and blockchain landscape focusing on web3 applications & infrastructure. 6MV was founded by Mike Dudas (founder of The Block, LinksDao and co-founder of Button) and Serge Kassardjian (co-founder of StayTuned), and our brand stems from the concept of basketball, where we believe every legendary team has a strong 6th Man to help off the bench. To learn more, visit https://www.6thman.ventures/.
