DMarket Raises $6.5 Million Round Led by Almaz Capital, and Welcomes Electronic Arts Founder Trip Hawkins as Board Member

LOS ANGELES, June 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- DMarket, an in-game item trading platform and a monetization technology for game developers, content creators, brands, and players (https://dmarket.tech/), today announced that the company has successfully closed $6.5 million in venture funding led by Almaz Capital, with support from Xsolla. The previous high profile deals of Almaz Capital include Yandex (IPO NASDAQ), QIK (sold to Skype), Sensity Systems (sold to Verizon Communications), Acumatica (sold to EQT) among others. 

With these new funds, DMarket will expand into further developments surrounding the in-game ecosystem. Game developers, players, influencers, and brands are able to co-create video game content securely and generate profit while continuing to play and have fun in different gaming multiverses.

The company is planning to increase its engineering force, and hire additional executives in the next three months. 

In these uncertain times of pandemic and economic crisis, DMarket is eager to create a virtual economy, allowing the ability to create and grow businesses for billions of people not only in the gaming industry worldwide. 

Alongside the investment, Trip Hawkins joins DMarket as an independent board member. He is known as the founder and CEO of Electronic Arts, 3DO and Digital Chocolate. Сalled the "King of the Nerds" by The Economist, he led EA for more than a decade; the company is valued at over $30 billion today. Hawkins has been elected to several halls of fame for being a leading pioneer in game design, technologies, brand creation, best practices, and business models.

"There has never been a better time for technology and gaming. We built DMarket with a particular future in mind, and that future is now. Validating our position in the market is this tremendous investment, one which we are so thankful for, and mentorship and leadership from the renowned Trip Hawkins — along with overall support from our community," said Vlad Panchenko, CEO and Founder at DMarket.

"The abilities of in-game content will become a crucial part of the new gaming worlds which is why we are creating a suitable and transparent ecosystem for them." 

"I love that DMarket is at the intersection of five growth trends in the game industry: advanced social games, virtual goods trading, fashion, eSports, and blockchain. DMarket has a big opportunity to be a new kind of leader in the game industry. They have the leadership, ideas, and resources to succeed and it is fun for me to help a talented executive like Vlad," said DMarket's new board member Trip Hawkins. "DMarket is a pioneer in the open market trading of game-related virtual goods, a market that will explode in the next decade."

"Today gamers don't really own the virtual goods they pay real money for. It inhibits the adoption of virtual game worlds and economies. DMarket enables innovative game developers to change that. In-game virtual item is a perfect 100% digital good for distributed ledger trading, which enables true ownership of virtual assets," said Daniil Stolyarov, Partner at Almaz Capital.

About DMarket

DMarket is using distributed ledger technology to guarantee transparency and to build a user-owned gaming economy. The DMarket platform enables secure buying, selling, and trading of in-game items. The company's technology lets billions of gamers safely exchange virtual items across titles and platforms while making money from gameplay. With offices in Los Angeles, London and Kyiv, DMarket raised $19 million from the global gaming community in 2017. DMarket's partners and customers include Xsolla, Unity, 4A Games, GSC Game World, Darewise, Playkey, Kiss Ltd., and Tatem Games. For more information, please visit: https://dmarket.tech/ or follow DMarket on Twitter. 

About Almaz Capital:

Founded in 2008, Almaz Capital is a global VC fund investing in early-stage, capital-efficient technology companies in high-growth sectors. Almaz Capital has a unique model with the physical presence and network within the Silicon Valley ecosystem and Europe, helping bridge companies from emerging tech regions to the global marketplace and building strong capital-efficient engineering teams across different geographies. Almaz Capital focuses on disruptive deep tech companies in b2b software space, including AI/ML and Blockchain applications, IoT and Edge Computing Enablers, Cybersecurity, etc. The fund's investors include Cisco, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. For more information, please visit: www.almazcapital.com

About Xsolla:

Xsolla is the video game business engine with a set of tools and services that helps clients operate and sell more games globally. Serving only the video game industry, the Xsolla product suite caters to businesses from indie to enterprise, with: Xsolla Pay Station and its #1 Anti-fraud solution, Xsolla Partner Network, Xsolla Site Builder, Xsolla Store, Xsolla Login, and Xsolla Launcher. These tools work seamlessly to solve the complexities of distribution, marketing, and monetization so developers, publishers, and platform partners can increase their audience, sales and revenue. Headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices worldwide, Xsolla operates as a merchant and seller of record for major gaming entities like Valve, Twitch, Ubisoft, Epic Games, and PUBG Corporation. For more information, visit www.xsolla.com.

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SOURCE DMarket Limited