Quick take:
Halliday has raised $6 million in a seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The Web3 startup is looking to make it easier for new users to join blockchain gaming by offering a ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ support system.
The company wants to leverage the popular ‘neobanking’ (next generation banking system) mechanism to change the way gamers acquire digital assets in the metaverse.
Speaking during a recent interview with Decrypt, Griffin Dunaif, Halliday Co-founder said: “So we built our demo, a pitch deck, and we pitched it to Andreessen, and they liked what they saw.”
According to Dunaif, work on the project started in November last year, just when the metaverse concept became a real economic opportunity after Facebook’s rebranding in October.
The $6 million fundraising also attracted participation from South Korean venture capital giant Hashed, as well as, A.Capital and SV Angel, among others.
Halliday is not the only platform to try to leverage the popular fintech sector lending system for use in NFTs.
In July, DeFi Lending platform Teller launched a Buy Now Pay Later feature for selected blue-chip NFT projects. The ApeNowPayLater project will initially feature 10 blue-chip NFTs including “Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Moonbirds, Doodles, Cool Cats, Azuki, Meebits, Adidas Originals: Into the Metaverse, RTFKT-MNLTH, and Murakami.Flowers Seed.”
Halliday’s focus seems to be NFTs featured as part of a blockchain game or metaverse project.
In a blog announcing the new product, the company wrote: “Halliday integrates directly with games and marketplaces as an alternative payment option at checkout, offering players a seamless way to secure ownership and pay for their NFT over time.”
One of the biggest challenges of joining a blockchain gaming ecosystem is that most play-to-earn games require users to acquire a particular NFT or game token to start playing.
This means that if you missed the NFT drop of the initial token offering, you could end up spending a lot to gain access.
Halliday is trying to plug this gap by offering gamers an opportunity to gain instant access after agreeing to a payment plan.
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