Farmville Co-Creator Secures $33M for Web3 Gaming Venture

Amitt Mahajan, who co-created Farmville, has raised $33 million for Proof of Play, according to a September 21 announcement.

Majahan is the chief executive officer of Proof of Play, and Emmett Shear is a board member. Chris Dixon at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Neil Mehta at Greenoaks spearheaded the funding effort.

In addition to investors Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, and the Twitch platform’s founders, Web3 firms Anchorage Digital, Mercury, Firebase, Zynga, and Alchemy also participated.

In December 2022, Proof of Play released a closed beta version of its first game, Pirate Nation. In its announcement, the company claimed that it could eliminate many of the obstacles that Web3 game participants commonly encounter.

Pirate Nation Web3 game. Source: Proof of Play

It asserted that it possesses “a set of technological and product innovations” that will “quickly immerse players in fun gameplay” without requiring them to first learn about blockchain.

Proof of Play has also declared its dedication to decentralization. Pirate Nation is a “Forever Game” that can be played without external servers or creator intervention, with the company planning to open-source its technology infrastructure in the future to further decentralize the game.

In addition to Epic Games, Zynga, EA, Activision, and Google, the Proof of Play team also comprises members from Zynga, EA, Activision, and Google.

In 2023, multimillion-dollar funding cycles from Web3 companies will be the norm. CCP Games raised $40 million in March to develop a new EVE Online subsidiary and Hyperplay raised $12 million in June to further develop its distribution platform and Steam rival.