DEA raises US$10m from investment firm LDA Capital

Digital Entertainment Asset (DEA), a Singapore-based Web3 entertainment company which operates the PlayMining NFT gaming platform, has raised a US$10 million investment from global alternative investment group LDA Capital.

The announcement comes less than a month after receiving a minority investment from Rakuten Capital, the corporate venture capital arm of Japanese e-commerce and internet services giant, Rakuten Group.

Launched in 2018, DEA manages intellectual property (IP) monetization for content creators and operates the PlayMining platform, which comprises a growing selection of P&E games, the PlayMining NFT marketplace, the in-development PlayMining Verse metaverse and the DEAPcoin ($DEP) token.

The company said in a December 14 statement that the fund will accelerate its business and market expansion as well as help optimize the development of its Web3 entertainment platform.

PlayMining offers a number of casual P&E games, including Job Tribes, Cookin’ Burger, Menya Dragon Ramen, Graffiti Racer and Lucky Farmer. Players can earn DEP through play, which can be spent on the platform’s marketplace to buy NFTs that enhance gameplay, or traded on crypto exchanges including OKX, Uniswap, Gate.io and Bitmart, among others.

In addition to GameFi NFTs, the PlayMining NFT market also sells artwork NFTs from some of the most popular Japanese anime and video game artists. The company has paid out over SG$9 million in royalties to both official and fan artists over the past four years, with a mission of creating a fairer distribution channel for creators, DEA said.

LDA Capital Managing Partner and co-founder Warren Baker said they were pleased to support DEA with flexible growth capital. “DEA continues to distinguish itself with its cash flow generating business model and solid user base positioning them as market leaders,” Baker said.

DEA co-founder and co-chief executive Naohito Yoshida said the company, which now has 2.6 million users, was very pleased to receive the funding, given the current bear market conditions. “This fresh funding will help develop our platform and drive market expansion even further, as we continue to actively form more strategic partnerships that broaden our ecosystem and to consolidate a leading position in the Web3 entertainment landscape,” Yoshida said.