South Africa-based gaming startup, Skrmiish, has raised $2.5 million in a new seed round led by Launch Africa Ventures, the Blockchain Founders Fund, and Stellar.

Skrmiish is a “play-to-earn” app that enables gamers to earn cash in every match they play across the AAA+ games they love regardless of the game level.

The startup was launched in 2021, and has developed a feature called MoneyMatch that allows players to earn real cash in every match they play, without having to wait for a tournament or find a peer to challenge.

MoneyMatch is live across the UK and Europe as it combines a traditional sportsbook approach with traditional AAA+ gameplay. Players get MoneyMatch Rating (MMR) based on performance data once they have synced Skrmiish with their respective game accounts.

According to the CEO, Luke Grob, Skrmiish has already acquired over 100,000 players across more than 100 jurisdictions around the globe. Luke also disclosed that the $2.5 million seed round will help it build on that to expand.

The seed funding will enable Skrmiish to accelerate scalability by integrating additional game titles, grow monthly revenue, launch in North and Latin America, and issue its Skrmiish token. It will also look to bring on a few experienced key hires to bolster the already talented team and continue to drive the company forward.

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Luke also said disclosed that these partnerships with the investors would accelerate the team’s ability to implement the Skrmiish economic value system and build a play-to-earn format for the majority of the world’s gamers. 

“Skrmiish will enable every gamer in the world to earn in every match they play within the games they already love. This is a revolution in the accessibility to earn while playing games and democratises the competitive esports and blockchain-based gaming industries. We’re fired up to launch our new MoneyMatch feature across multiple game titles, taking the casual gamer experience to a new level of excitement that we hope will delight players around the world,” Luke said.

Zachariah George, managing partner at Launch Africa Ventures, said the youth of the African continent – the median age of the African population is 18, versus 42 in Europe, 35 in North America, and 31 in Asia – offered a huge opportunity to innovators in the content and gaming spaces.

“A combination of having the world’s fastest growing youth population together with an exponential increase in digital skills transfer and connectivity amongst the youth, puts young Africans in pole position to be both the leading consumers and creators of content in the competitive video gaming world by 2030. The Skrmiish team are well positioned to tap into the huge market for skill-based games where we can finally see the true ‘democratisation’ and monetisation of young gaming talent,” George said.