NPC Labs, a GameFi infrastructure startup founded by former Coinbase employees, has raised $21 million to accelerate gaming development on Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, Base. Pantera Capital led the funding with $18 million, supported by several other investors.

NPC Labs Secures $21 Million to Boost GameFi on Coinbase's Base Network, Led by Pantera Capital

NPC Labs, a GameFi infrastructure startup founded by three former Coinbase employees, has raised $21 million to accelerate gaming development on Coinbase's Ethereum layer-2 network Base.

Pantera Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in cryptocurrency, provided $18 million of the funding—according to a July 22 report by VentureBeat, which was reposted on X by NPC, Makers Fund, Hashed, Mirana Ventures, and numerous other investors also contributed.

NPC claims to assist developers in commercializing their GameFi projects and offers them more significant support than they typically receive when working with wealthy publishers.

“After spending years creating a game, developers are beholden to publishers to deem their games worthy of support, marketing, and distribution,” NPC’s CEO and former Coinbase business development associate Daryl Xu said. “And when they do, developers give up 70% of the proceeds with the risk of the publisher pulling the game if it’s not generating sufficient revenue.”

NPC Labs Aims to Empower Game Developers with New Layer-3 GameFi Blockchain on Base

According to Xu (via Cointelegraph), this configuration would restore "control" to game developers and enthusiasts.

“We want to help build fun games for the mom in Nebraska while making it dead simple for developers to benefit from being on-chain.”

To accomplish this, NPC will be a crucial contributor to B3, a layer 3 GameFi-focused blockchain constructed on top of Base. B3 will bridge in-game assets, gas fees, and transactions.

Developers will be able to concentrate more on deploying enjoyable content in this manner, as NPC observed.

Viktoriya Hying, the chief operating officer of NPC, who, like Xu, had previously worked at Coinbase, stated that the decision to build on top of Base was simple.

Sean Geng, the other founder of NPC, was also employed at Coinbase as an engineering manager.

Although Base was a latecomer to the Ethereum layer-2 space, Hying observed that it is well-positioned to connect wallets to Coinbase's 100 million user base.

“We want to make it safe and simple, with everything that comes with crypto that is a little intimidating for the retail user,” Hying said. “We want to eliminate what makes it hard to have an easy and fun experience.”

B3 also supports Ethereum and other Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible blockchains.