Web3 startups raised $7.1B in funding during 2022 – Gaming accounted for 62% Web3 startups raised $7.1B in funding during 2022 – Gaming accounted for 62%
Gaming collected the largest amount at $4.49 billion, followed by Metaverse with $1.8 billion and Social Networks with $259.1 million.
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Updated: Jan. 2, 2023 at 3:03 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
The Web3 space raised $7.1 billion in funding throughout 2022, with Gaming, Metaverse, and Social Networks being the top three investment categories, according to Metaverse Post’s year-end report.
The report took start-ups under Gaming, Metaverse, Social Networks, Infrastructure, Artificial Reality and Virtual Reality (AR &VR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and calculated the exact investment amount collected as $7,169,997,888.
Despite the bear market, the sum is $4.8 billion higher than in 2021.
Categories’ ranking
The gaming category became the year’s top category, while AI became the last.
Gaming
Gaming came forward as the winning category by collecting $4.49 billion, which accounts for 62.5% of the total amount invested in Web3.
According to the report, Epic Games collected the most significant investment in 2022. The company raised $2 billion in funding from Sony and LEGO owner KIRKBI. Epic Games closed the year at a $31.5 billion valuation.
Metaverse
Metaverse followed Gaming as the second most popular category that attracted investment in 2022. According to the report, the metaverse sphere collected $1.82 billion in funding, which accounts for 25.4% of the total investment.
Creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Yuga Labs became the second company that collected the largest sum in funding. In March, Yuga Labs raised $450 million in funding to launch Otherside metaverse.
Social Networks
Start-ups that launch social networking apps suitable for the decentralized and secure fashion of the Web3 were the third most popular category in the eyes of the investors. The category raised $259.1 million in 2022, compensating for 3.6% of the total amount invested in Web3.
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Infrastructure, AR & VR, and AI
The last three categories were Infrastructure, AR&VR, and AI, with $200.8 million, $178.6 million, and $136.5 million, respectively.
All falling under the infrastructure category, NFT-focused Immutable, Metaverse-focused Improbable, gaming-focused Sky Mavis, and start-up-focused AngelList also entered the top 10 start-ups that attracted the most prominent funding. Immutable raised $200 million in funding, AngelList collected $100 million, while Sky Mavis and Improbable secured $150 million each.
Biggest spenders
Four Venture Capital firms came forward as the biggest spenders this year, each sparing over $1 billion in investments.
Of these, Paradigm claimed first place by spending $2.5 billion in 2022. The company supported 31 projects, including Uniswap, Magic Eden, and Optimism
Andreessen Horowitz followed Paradigm as a close second with a total investment of $2.2 billion.
The Youngest Venture Capital of all, Hivemind, spared $1.5 billion in 2022 and secured third place in the ranking, while Binance Labs became the fourth by investing $1 billion.
Mentioned in this article
Bored Ape Yacht Club 
Yuga Labs 
Immutable 
Sky Mavis 
Paradigm 
Optimism 
Magic Eden 
a16z 
Phaver 
Lens Protocol 
Uniswap Author 
Zeynep Geylan
Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018. Originating in social sciences, she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power.
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Bored Ape Yacht Club
Bored Ape Yacht Club, or often colloquially called Bored Ape, is a non-fungible token collection built on the Ethereum blockchain.
Yuga Labs
Yuga Labs is one of the savviest marketers of NFT brands, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs—unique digital collectibles living on the Ethereum blockchain.
Immutable
Immutable is advancing the world of NFTs through Immutable X, an industry-leading NFT minting and trading platform, and Immutable Studios, an NFT game development studio.
Sky Mavis
Sky Mavis they are technology company that creates decentralized applications and services.
Optimism
Optimism is an Ethereum-based decentralized infrastructure platform that allows for instant transactions and scalable smart contracts.
Magic Eden
Magic Eden is a multi-Chain NFT marketplace, pushing boundaries on Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon and driving the next billion users to Web3.
a16z
Andreessen Horowitz (known as “a16z”) is a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley specializing in investing in seed, start-ups, early, mid-stage, growth, and late stage.
Phaver is a share-to-earn decentralized social platform powered by Lens protocol.
Founded by Stani Kulechov, who is also the founder of AAVE (AAVE), Lens Protocol is a social networking product based on blockchain technology.
Designed with simplicity in mind, the Uniswap protocol provides an interface for seamless exchange of ERC20 tokens on Ethereum.