Bitkraft Ventures expands to Asia to tap into the continent’s gaming and web3 potential

Bitkraft Ventures, a gaming and esports venture capital fund with $830m in assets under management, is expanding into Asia to capture the region’s mobile gamers and its emerging web3 gaming sector.

The company has hired Jin Oh, former president of Riot Games and CEO of Garena, as a partner and Jonathan Huang, a former associate director at Temasek, as principal, to help identify and invest in promising gaming and interactive entertainment startups.

According to Huang, the Asian market differs from the West, as users are more receptive to innovative monetization models and new ways of gaming. He also mentioned that gacha games, which the West was hesitant to adopt, originated in Asia. Huang added that Asians are adept at monetizing their players, and to some extent, they accept the pay-to-win model.

The duo will primarily focus on finding blockchain gaming projects, a niche sector that currently attracts mostly crypto-native users, but whose potential is significant.