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Loot Labs Announces $6M Seed Funding Round Led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with Counter-Strike 2 Cosmetics Beta Coming to BOXED.GG on October 28

BITKRAFT leads $7.5M in total funding for Loot Labs following a $1.5M pre-seed round last year, investing in the company’s expansion to digital collectibles after a proven track record with physical trading card games

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October 7, 2024

5 Min Read

[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Game Developer and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press]

BITKRAFT Ventures :

SEATTLE and RIO DE JANEIRO – October 7, 2024 – Loot Labs, a Seattle-based startup empowering collectors with fun, convenient, digitally-driven ways to enjoy their hobby, announced that they have secured $6M in a seed round investment led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Sfermion, Fabric Ventures, and Everyrealm. Loot Labs is using the investment to expand its gamified collectibles platform, BOXED.GG, into the digital video game collectibles market, starting with a beta for Counter-Strike 2 skins launching on October 28. Users can sign-up for free at https://boxed.gg/cs and be ready to go on launch day.

Check out the BOXED.GG Counter-Strike 2 trailer here.

With hundreds of thousands of registered users to date, Loot Labs has laid the groundwork for BOXED.GG’s business model in the physical trading card game markets of Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Now, they are leveling up their offerings as the only legitimate digital collectibles platform for video games, benefiting players and publishers alike. This debut platform refines Counter-Strike 2 cosmetics collecting by delivering a curated unboxing experience players can trust, and its one-of-a-kind Marketplace empowers players to exchange anything they’ve collected in their inventory for the specific Counter-Strike 2 skins they covet.

“The resounding support of BITKRAFT Ventures confirms our mission: we are filling a valuable role in expanding and securing the collectibles market with a trusted platform,” said Milan Harris, Loot Labs CEO. “The current blackmarket of virtual trade leaves money on the table for video game developers and exposes consumers to significant security risks. We envision a future where studios can tap into the digital collectibles market, allowing their teams to benefit from secondary transactions while giving their fans a safe environment to freely collect and trade items in their favorite games.”

“We love the collectibles space and believe in the markets around them. Unfortunately, both physical and digital markets are often ripe with fraud and other issues that get in the way of growing these economies,” said Carlos Pereira, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures. “We've been partners with the Loot Labs team since their Pre-Seed round and have seen their hustle and tech-forward approach deliver strong success already in physical cards. As investors who are passionate about the convergence of digital and physical worlds, we couldn't miss the chance to double-down on our partnership as Loot Labs continues to grow and evolve into new markets.”

Loot Labs is headquartered in Seattle, with an international team located across the UK, Netherlands, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, and leadership from Microsoft, NASA, Boeing, Lucas Arts, Twitch, and 2K. Creators of BOXED.GG, Loot Labs empowers collectors and trading card players with a convenient and entertaining way to enrich their hobby. Founded in 2022, Loot Labs previously attracted significant attention from investors, securing a $1.5M pre-seed round investment in 2023, also led by BITKRAFT Ventures.

A proud sponsor of the 2024 New York Comic Con livestream, as well as an advertising partner of ESL FACEIT Group this October and November, BOXED.GG is the ultimate destination for all things collectible, with a thriving community of more than 28,000 Discord members to date. Started as a hub for trading card games (TGCs) like Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering, BOXED.GG empowers its customers to digitally unbox the rare items they truly want. In the case of physical items like trading cards, customers can ship them straight to their doors, while virtual items like Counter-Strike 2 skins are transferred directly to their in-game inventory. Boxed’s US-based fulfillment facility is loaded with more than 30,000 trading cards in mint, or near-mint condition, and provides industry-leading quality assurance regardless of card value. All boxes are provably fair with transparent drop rates, reducing waste, bulk, and risk from the collection process. With over 15M boxes opened to date, BOXED.GG is redefining the hobby of collecting to serve the collector.

For more information on Loot Labs and BOXED.GG, visit boxed.gg, and follow them on X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. You can download the media kit here.

For more information regarding BITKRAFT Ventures, visit www.bitkraft.vc.

About Loot Labs
Loot Labs is the creator of BOXED.GG, the ultimate collectibles experience for fans of Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Counter-Strike 2, and more. Headquartered in Seattle, WA, Loot Labs is backed by BITKRAFT Ventures and other firms with a history of investing in transformative companies like Discord and Epic Games. The team is based out of the UK, Netherlands, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, with a leadership team that brings years of experience from organizations including Microsoft, 2K, NASA, Boeing, Twitch and Lucas Arts. To date, BOXED.GG has delighted hundreds of thousands of registered users who collectively have opened more than 15M boxes and counting. With many more new collectible categories to come in the future, we can’t wait to see what you pull next.

About BITKRAFT Ventures
BITKRAFT Ventures is the global early-stage investment platform for gaming, Web3, and immersive technology, with assets under management totaling over $1 billion and 130+ companies in their portfolio. With a focus on Seed, Series A, and Series B investments across the spectrum of interactive media, BITKRAFT is at the forefront of the Synthetic Reality™ tech revolution, where physical and digital worlds converge. For a full list of public investments made to date, view BITKRAFT’s portfolio here.

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