Sonam Kapoor Invests In Gaming Startup Metaverse Platform MechaFightClub

Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor has invested an undisclosed amount in the blockchain-based game MechaFightClub (MFC), launched by online gaming startup Irreverent Labs.

MechaFightClub is a metaverse gaming platform with every character in the game being individually unique, artificially intelligent non-player-character (NPC) living on blockchain as an NFT, the US-based startup said in a press statement.

Founded in 2021 by Rahul Sood, David Raskino, Thibault Reichelt, Irreverent Labs develops artificially intelligent (AI) games with machine learning (ML), engaging gameplay, with blockchain technology.

Sharing details about MFC, a robot cock fighting game that uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Sood said the game is built on the blockchain as it is a collectables game. The game resembles Warhammer or Heroclix.

“I’ve grown up playing video games and love everything about them. The art, the storytelling, the creativity that goes into developing a game that is exciting today and also stands the test of time is something that’s always intrigued me,” Sonam Kapoor said, while breaking the news on social media.

The actress is gearing up for the release of a thriller drama Blind.

“All this drew me to MFC, and what’s more groundbreaking is how MFC is bringing the video gaming industry into the next chapter of Web 3.0. I am elated to be a part of their family,” she added. 

The game is set in a dystopian future dominated by extraterrestrial mecha bots. When a global resistance hacks the 41,000 remaining chicken-shaped mecha bots, these weapons of war are redistributed to the public as “weapons of mass entertainment”, as per its website.

Just a few days ago, Irreverent Labs raised $40 Mn to further boost its efforts to create MechaFightClub. The funding was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Irreverent Labs is also working with the Solana blockchain, which has an ecosystem that is popular with games and processes transactions faster.

Solana is a highly functional open source project that implements a new, permissionless and high-speed layer-1 blockchain. Created in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko, a former executive at Qualcomm, Solana aims to scale throughput beyond what is typically achieved by popular blockchains while keeping costs low.

Some of the startups active in India in the online gaming segment are Bengaluru-based OWN, which received $2 Mn in Seed funding in April from Better Capital, Polygon Studios, Cloud Capital and Indigg, Games24x7 that raised $75 Mn in a funding round in March led by Malabar India Fund at $2.5 Bn valuation, Turnip that raised $12.5 Mn in January 2022 in a Series A funding round co-led by Greenoaks and Elevation Capital, Rooter, which raised $25 Mn in a Series A funding round in January led by Lightbox, March Gaming and Duane Park Ventures.

Meanwhile, the online gaming industry in India is estimated to touch the $2.8 Bn-mark by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 40% after witnessing strong growth momentum during the pandemic times, as per a report by Deloitte.