Enjin wants to decentralize its metaverse with new $100M fund

The Efinity Metaverse Fund will focus on seed equity investments for projects building Efinity.

Blockchain gaming platform Enjin is establishing a new fund to support the development of the metaverse ecosystem and make it more decentralized.

Enjin, a startup behind the nonfungible token (NFT)-focused blockchain Efinity, has formed a $100-million fund to support ​​Efinity adopters as well as other related projects, the startup announced Thursday.

“It is now time for us to turn this into an official, public, and conscious piece of our growth strategy, and support a free, open, and decentralized Metaverse,” Enjin said, adding that it will consider equity investments in seed funding rounds and token purchases to nurture the ecosystem.

Dubbed the “Efinity Metaverse Fund,” the new fund also targets organizations that are focused on cross-chain integrations with the Enjin ecosystem as well as collaborative NFT projects on Efinity and Polkadot. The fund will also support gaming projects built on “all platforms” alongside other areas related to the metaverse, NFTs and Efinity’s core infrastructure.

Related: The Sandbox raises $93M to expand its NFT metaverse

Earlier this year, Enjin secured $18.9 million in funding from investors, including major crypto exchange Crypto.com to debut Efinity, its Polkadot-based blockchain for the NFT industry. EFI, the native cryptocurrency of Efinity, went live in August 2021 following a $20-million token sale in July.

Enjin’s latest move into the metaverse comes amid the growing hype around the metaverse concept, fueled even further after social media giant Facebook officially changed its company name to Meta. The concept of the metaverse is used to describe a mix of technologies that create a 3D virtual reality featuring activities such as online gaming and hangouts.