On Tuesday, the fintech and payment processor Zebedee announced the company has raised $35 million from Kingsway Capital, Raine Group, and video game giant Square Enix. Zebedee detailed that the Series B funding will help the startup “scale company-wide to meet the needs of the biggest names in the games industry.”
Gaming-Focused Fintech Zebedee Secures $35 Million
- The Hoboken, New Jersey-based company Zebedee has raised $35 million from investors according to the company’s announcement sent to Bitcoin.com News on Tuesday. Zebedee specializes in financial technology concepts and integrating bitcoin into games.
- For instance, a bitcoin mining game for Android and iOS called “Bitcoin Miner” allows users to receive bitcoin (BTC) rewards that are handled by Zebedee. Furthermore, the fintech company raised $11.5 million in a funding round led by Lakestar in September 2021.
- Zebedee’s latest financing was led by Kingsway Capital but Raine Group, Initial Capital, Lakestar, and Square Enix also participated. The video game giant Square Enix has pivoted toward non-fungible token (NFT) concepts and blockchain solutions in recent times.
- Zebedee detailed on Tuesday that it has crafted a platform that allows any developer to add programmable money functionality into games. The platform can make it so that “anything that happens in a game can trigger a payment, which is sent instantly and at nearly zero cost.”
- For instance, “when a player shoots someone in a competitive CS:GO match, they can take a small amount of money (e.g. a fraction of a cent) from them in real-time inside the match itself,” Zebedee explained. The fintech firm said that it offers API-based tools for software developers and an application for gamers.
- The payment platform for games created by Zebedee leverages the Lightning Network as a part of the project’s payments infrastructure. “We are pleased to be in a position where we can confidently scale our team and grow our business even as the macroeconomic backdrop becomes increasingly uncertain,” said Simon Cowell, CEO of Zebedee.
- Since the company’s initial fundraise for $11.5 million last September, Zebedee said the company’s user count has increased by more than 10X. Zebedee detailed that it’s a fintech company that is focused on gaming and bitcoin is “simply the payment rail that enables the flexible, programmable transfers of any amount between any game, app or user.”
What do you think about Zebedee raising $35 million in a Series B led by Kingsway Capital and with participants like Square Enix? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.