Blockchain gaming firm Azra Games raises $15 million in seed funding led by a16z

Azra Games, a blockchain gaming startup, raised $15 million in seed funding, according to a Thursday announcement.

The venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) led the round, with additional participation from NFX, Coinbase Ventures, Play Ventures and Franklin Templeton. 

Azra Games will use the funds to build out its first game Project Arcanas, a sci-fi fantasy epic with mass combat and role-playing game (RPG) elements. The game will feature web3 technology like virtual collectibles. 

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The firm was founded by Mark Otero, former general manager of the video game giant Electronic Arts (EA), and spearheaded the popular video game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. 

"Mark Otero is a seasoned game director who was at the forefront of mobile free-to-play games with the hit franchise Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes,” said a16z general partner Jonathan Lai in a statement. “We’re excited to partner with Mark and the Azra team as they apply their expertise to web3 games in creating new types of gameplay and economy design.” 

A16z recently funded other blockchain gaming starts this month, such as LootRush, in addition to launching a $600 million venture fund for blockchain gaming on May 18.

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MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.