NPC Labs, a web3 gaming infrastructure startup founded by former Base team members, announced it raised $21 million. This amount includes $18 million from a seed round led by Pantera Capital, according to a July 22 statement shared with CryptoSlate.

Other investors included Makers Fund, Hashed, Collab+Currency, Sfermion, Mirana Ventures, Bitscale Capital, and Mantle EcoFund.

Onboarding 3 billion gamers

NPC Labs noted that Web2 developers see the potential of on-chain gaming but often underestimate the complexities of creating a protocol with sufficient liquidity and user base while managing infrastructure for smooth gameplay.

The firm hopes to solve this challenge by speeding up the onboarding and development processes of on-chain gaming. To achieve this, it is currently working as a core contributor to B3.fun, a groundbreaking horizontally scaled gaming ecosystem on Coinbase’s L2 network, Base.

B3 was designed with built-in chain abstraction, removing the need for users to bridge or switch networks. The ecosystem is currently in the testnet phase and supports games built on Ethereum, Base, and other EVM chains.

With a proprietary, highly scalable technology stack, B3 could also seamlessly onboard games from other chains like Solana.

NPC Labs Co-founder & CEO Daryl Xu noted that developers struggle to bring their games to market in today’s competitive gaming world, pointing out how they are at the mercy of “publishers for support, marketing, and distribution.”

However, B3 would help restore control to game developers and gamers by making it easy for them to benefit from being on-chain.

NPC Labs Co-founder & COO Viktoriya Hying said:

“Imagine if every published game had its own console and infrastructure. It’s impractical. Every gamer just wants one place where you can play many games. B3 is that console, and the B3 ecosystem solves these issues by running the chain and providing the infrastructure needed so that developers can focus on providing the best experience for their players.”

Franklin Bi, General Partner at Pantera Capital, said B3’s infrastructure and tooling will add a new dimension to Base, empowering developers to build great games and on-chain consumer experiences.

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