Karate Combat, a live-action full-contact martial arts sports league, recently announced an $18 million dollar funding round led by BITKRAFT Ventures and Cypher Capital.
Additional participants included Alpha Wave Global, Delphi Digital, The Operating Group, Hashkey, Lattice, M13, Santiago R Santos, RooxieXBT and others. Prior investors include the League’s founders, Packy McCormick’s Not Boring Capital, and Keyboard Monkey. The funding will be used to support the May 10th launch of the Karate Combat App and $KARATE token.
Karate Combat is the first sports league structured to give the token holders in a decentralized autonomous organization (“DAO”) control over the direction of the league. On May 10th, the company will launch the Karate Combat UP Only Gaming App and $KARATE token. As part of the new app, fans can collect free $KARATE tokens. The $KARATE token both governs the League and gamifies the live viewing experience. Holders of the $KARATE token can use the league’s smart contracts, web apps and mobile apps to vote on fighters, earn additional $KARATE tokens with no risk of loss, and boost their favorite fighters’ potential prize pools, above and beyond their contracted pay.
“We are thrilled to partner with the top venture partners both worldwide and within the GCC region where we currently have a number of initiatives planned which will take our DAO to the next level,” said Robert Bryan, Karate Combat Founder.
“This might be one of the most innovative projects I’ve seen in Web3 today” said Bill Qian, Chairman of Cypher Capital. “Creating a harmony between this incredible combat sport, augmented reality and the best parts of web3 is like nothing else we have ever seen. We are fascinated to see what comes next and we are proud to support in any way we can.”
