There is a quietly growing force in blockchain gaming, still understated, but on the prowl for a bigger slice of the sought-after pie. Ajuna Network has just completed another private seed round and raised $5 million, but who are they and what do they do?

In the quiet period of crypto’s bear market, many high-profile news items have sunk into obscurity. One of the great ecosystems in Web3 for several years has been Polkadot — which is still the case — and their auctions for parachains had relevance to blockchain gaming in several ways. In late 2021, Enjin won the 6th parachain auction for their Efinity network. This indicated the potential for Polkadot to play host to a number of gaming chains, and although Efinity hasn’t yet lassoed many interesting Web3 games, they aren’t the only gaming parachain on the block. In November 2022, Ajuna Network won auction 31.

So, what is Ajuna Network?

What Is Ajuna Network?

Ajuna Network is a Web3 gaming platform aimed at both gamers and developers. Ajuna is designed to allow game developers to quickly integrate blockchain technology into their games, whether they are made in Unity or Unreal Engine. Developers can add a tokenized currency to their games in mere minutes, or utilize the SDKs to integrate NFTs and other blockchain mechanisms. Ajuna will then help promote the game and garner gamer attention. Finally, revenue is earned by NFTs sold in your game and there is the potential for interoperability between any game using Polkadot chains.

This time last year, Ajuna raised $2m to develop their platform, with familiar names such as Animoca Brands and OKX backing the project with capital. Now, a second, private seed round has been led by CMCC Global to increase the total amount raised to $7m.

It’s still very early days for Ajuna, but the only obvious weakness of the platform is the games, or the current lack thereof. There is AAA (Awesome Ajuna Avatars) which is an NFT collection project tied in with Ajuna’s main game, BattleMogs, seen above. There is then New Omega, which is a space strategy game and appears similar to Alien Worlds in many respects. That is all we are aware of on the games front at present.

This isn’t a criticism of Ajuna per se — as I say, it’s early days for Ajuna — and the investment suggests that there is likely a lot going on behind closed doors. Whatever the case, it was high time we planted a flag in the Ajuna Network as one to watch, and watch we shall.

Lead image made in part with a photo by Chuck Fortner on Unsplash