[YS Exclusive] PlayVerse raises seed funding of $1.5M from Japan’s Akatsuki Inc

PlayVerse, a technology-enabled entertainment company built on Web 3, has raised $1.5 million as seed funding from Japanese gaming company Akatsuki Inc.

PlayVerse plans to launch its own D2C brand, which will be focused on an interconnected universe of content and “play”. It aims to unlock the full potential of an IP with a 360-degree approach to content and merchandise. This merchandise would include both physical products such as toys as well as digital assets like avatars, emojis, and skins creating more interest among users.

PlayVerse will be actively focusing on enabling content owners to maximise the monetisation potential of their IPs.

"Thanks to the advent of blockchain technology and the scalability offered by promising L2 protocols, we have some moonshot ideas of IP monetisation that we are exploring. At the moment, we are focused on customer discovery and hypothesis testing to assess product-market fit," said Founder Jaineel Aga, when asked about how PlayVerse intends to utilise these funds.

Jaineel is a serial entrepreneur who recently sold his first venture, Planet Superheroes, to Nodwin Gaming, an esports company, and a subsidiary of NSE-listed Nazara Technologies. He is an alumnus of Duke University and has worked in strategy consulting and in private equity before pursuing entrepreneurship.

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Focus on Joy Infinitum

The startup offers world-class content, toys, games, and technology products in India. The diverse platform will be focusing on its mission of providing an enriching experience to the end consumers of the country.

With an aim of increasing cross-border collaborations between India and Japan, PlayVerse looks to maximise the monetisation potential of popular Japanese IPs and brands in India. 

A FICCI-EY report estimated that by 2025, 50 percent of the total time spent on OTT platforms will be to consume regional content.

PlayVerse will also aim at localising global content into regional Indian languages to be inclusive and accessible to the diverse vernacular Indian audience.

The Indian toys market reached a value of $1.35 billion in 2021 and with more than 400 million online gamers in India, the Indian gaming industry is expected to reach $3.9 billion by 2025.

By catering to both these industries, along with focusing on providing world-class content, PlayVerse looks to build on its philosophy of “Joy Infinitum”, meaning spreading infinite joy to its consumers.