Futureverse, a startup formed out of 11 different firms, has raised $54 million in Series A round led by 10T Holdings and including contribution from Ripple Labs, the firm said on Tuesday.

The company's aim is to combine AI and blockchain to build the infrastructure for users' experience of the metaverse. It formed out of the merger of eight companies in late 2022, with three more assimilated subsequently.

The funding news was first reported by Bloomberg.

Futureverse's most notable existing projects include FLUF World, a non-fungible token (NFT) collection of cartoon rabbits and AI League, a mobile soccer game licensed by the sport's world governing body FIFA.

The large funding would appear to be at odds with the broader trend in the digital asset industry where capital has been hard to come by in the bear market conditions of the last year or more.

It suggests that there remains enthusiasm from investors for projects that combine digital assets with other sectors such as AI, which has witnessed a surge in interest this year thanks to platforms like language-recognition engine ChatGPT.

UPDATE (July 18, 13:20 UTC): Updates headline and text with confirmation.

AI Metaverse Funding Rounds

Jamie Crawley

Jamie joined CoinDesk as a news reporter in February 2021 after writing widely about crypto and blockchain for two years in other roles. Away from crypto, Jamie runs a lot and loves all things sport. He holds small amounts of BTC, ETH, ADA and LTC.