How NPC Labs, Founded by Former Coinbase Employees, Raised $21 Million
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How NPC Labs, Founded by Former Coinbase Employees, Raised $21 Million
Quick overview of B3.fun, a gaming ecosystem built on Base by former Coinbase employees (with interaction strategy included).
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Karen, Foresight News
Web3 gaming, a hotbed attracting developers and capital alike, is brimming with possibilities. Today we introduce B3.fun, a game ecosystem built on Base, whose core contributor team, NPC Labs, recently announced the completion of its $21 million Pre-Seed and Seed funding rounds.
B3 is not only an L3 network on Base but also a one-stop gaming store. NPC Labs believes that by offering fun and highly engaging casual and hyper-casual gaming experiences, serving as a one-stop shop for game developers, it can deeply attract a broad player base while benefiting both developers and players.
All Three Co-Founders of NPC Labs Have Coinbase and Base Backgrounds
NPC Labs is the core contributor behind B3.fun, a game ecosystem built on Base—essentially an L3 on Base—dedicated to building a seamless, open gaming ecosystem that transforms ownership and incentive models for gamers and developers.
On July 23, NPC Labs announced it had raised $18 million in Seed funding, led by Makers Fund, Hashed, Collab+Currency, Mirana Ventures, Sfermion, Bitscale Capital, and Mantle EcoFund. Combined with its Pre-Seed round, NPC Labs has now raised a total of $21 million. Angel investors include individuals from Coinbase, Base, Optimism, Bybit, the NFT card game Parallel, Yield Guild Games, Proof of Play, and Delphi Venture.
Notably, all three co-founders of NPC Labs previously worked at Coinbase and Base. They left their former employer at the end of March this year and co-founded NPC Labs in April, quickly launching a testnet last month. The co-founders are:
1. Daryl Xu: Former core contributor at Base and business development manager at Coinbase; CEO at NPC Labs;
2. Viktoriya Hying: Former business development manager at Coinbase Base; COO at NPC Labs;
3. Sean Geng: Former engineering manager at Coinbase; CTO at NPC Labs.
According to The Block, NPC Labs currently has five employees and plans to expand cross-functional teams in engineering, marketing, and outreach, growing the team to ten members. In a VentureBeat report, Viktoriya Hying clearly articulated the company’s core vision: “We’re ensuring we can operate robustly and achieve our goals. This funding allows us to remain highly flexible and alert during future volatility, especially potential bear market conditions, without being distracted by fundraising. Our goal is to launch 100 games on B3 within the next 12 months.”
What Is B3.fun?
Daryl Xu, CEO of NPC Labs, explained that B3.fun, as a Layer 3 ecosystem built on Base, operates similarly to a microservices architecture, enabling high-frequency transaction processing per second and approaching a near-zero gas fee environment. More importantly, leveraging ChainSafe’s chain abstraction technology, B3.fun eliminates user concerns around cross-chain operations or network switching, delivering a smoother, uninterrupted gaming experience.
B3.fun aims to provide gamers with a simple, frictionless entry point into blockchain gaming and aspires to become a one-stop shop for game developers—running infrastructure, assisting with marketing and distribution so developers can focus on creating fun games. The B3 mainnet will launch later.
Currently, during the testnet phase, B3 already supports games built on Ethereum, Base, and other EVM-compatible chains, with plans to support more blockchains in the future. B3 also holds potential to integrate games from other blockchains like Solana.
Additionally, B3 has established partnerships with over 350 non-custodial wallet providers, data visualization platforms, data suppliers, on-ramps, and oracle services, aiming to deliver more direct and convenient solutions for game developers.
What Games Are Currently on the B3 Testnet?
When asked whether B3 would launch its own token upon mainnet release, Daryl Xu stated that decision lies with the foundation. B3’s website also clarifies that participating in the B3 testnet does not entitle users to any rewards on the mainnet, though they can compete on game leaderboards. Below are several games currently live on the B3 testnet:
1. Dino Runner: A 3D endless runner where players control a dinosaur to run, jump, dodge obstacles, and survive to earn DINO tokens.
2. PEWPEW TAP: Tap to fire, tap to earn, tap to conquer. Players shoot lasers to generate unique hash values and earn PEWPEW tokens on-chain.
3. Neighborhood Defense: A tower defense game where players face zombie invasions and must strategically build and upgrade archer towers, bomber towers, power towers, and sniper towers to protect their community and earn ZOMB tokens. The game also features another token called COINZ.
4. Key Quest: Players jump through obstacles and grab keys to progress. Collecting stars scattered across levels earns STARS tokens.
5. Pixel Zombie Crush: Players crush pixelated zombies before they reach the bottom of the screen to earn ZOMB tokens.
6. Fruit Merge: A match-3 puzzle game where players merge identical fruits to earn JUICE tokens.
7. Don't Crash: The longer players drive their vehicle, the more CRASH tokens they earn.
All the above games are available on web and mobile. In addition, the B3 testnet hosts several Mac desktop games and Telegram-based games, such as the Telegram Pinball game. Viktoriya Hying said many of the games they’ll release on mainnet will be Telegram games and mini-apps, aiming to simplify the process and create sticky, enjoyable experiences.
However, yesterday when logged in, all these games displayed "invalid session" and loading screens—the cause is unclear, possibly a bug. As of today, the games have returned to normal operation. That said, entering games remains slow, though gameplay itself is relatively smooth.
Interaction Guide
1. Claim B3 testnet tokens: After connecting your wallet, click the white dot (https://faucet.b3.fun/);
2. Claim Base Sepolia testnet tokens:
https://faucet.quicknode.com/base/sepolia
or https://www.alchemy.com/faucets/base-sepolia
or https://console.optimism.io/faucet
3. Cross-chain bridge (deposit and withdraw):
https://bridge.b3.fun/#
4. Create an Avatar NFT (ERC1155 format). Avatars can be auto-generated in either 3D or pixel art styles, or manually uploaded. Avatar generation takes about one minute.
5. Play the listed games. Note: You must mint in-game assets on the testnet before playing.
In summary, NPC Labs, founded in April this year, has completed fundraising and launched its testnet within approximately three months. The testnet already showcases multiple games, demonstrating the team's execution capability and efficiency despite room for improvement in gameplay experience. While every game experiment and ecosystem build contributes to advancing the Web3 gaming space, whether NPC Labs can sustain progress and secure a leading position remains to be seen.
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