Play-to-earn blockchain gaming revolution

Series A fundraise for world’s leading NFT-based P2E startup

The Opportunity

Our client, one of the first NFT-based play-to-earn companies, has been experiencing rapid growth quickly reaching $1m in revenue per month.

To win market share and overtake its biggest competitor, within the next few months the team had to secure a minimum of $5m in funding.

The challenge

  • No preliminary work was done by the team on the pitch with no idea of how to tell the story of the business
  • Very short company history, and lack of founder traction to prove to the investors the ability to execute
  • Lack of investor understanding of the market fundamentals due to the nascency of the sector, further inhibiting the chances to quickly raise funds
  • An increasingly competitive field with a major large competitor; and investors being skeptical of the ability of new incumbents to gain market share
  • 3 days timeline to build the winning pitch that could get investors’ interest and present a compelling investment story of the business

In-depth market research

In-depth market research

  • Given the early days of the sector, the existing information on the market was practically non-existent, making it difficult to persuade people to invest
  • Using multiple primary and secondary sources, Waveup has put together an analysis of the market that allowed to frame the problem and opportunity, as well as complete market sizing exercise

HOW WE HELPED

Building traction

  • As the business has only been active for a month, there was very limited validation for its viability. The management has not been tracking any metrics and wasn’t sure which would be relevant to showcase to investors
  • Waveup worked with the client team to analyze existing raw data, calculate the right investor metrics, and present them in the most impressive way, both in terms of narrative and visuals
  • The impactful demonstration of growth achieved so far (and growth expected over the next few months), has helped to massively increase the number of investor replies.
  • Furthermore, multiple angles were taken to showcase traction (revenue run rate, profit margins, NFTs asset values, accounts growth, and community numbers) helped to persuade investors of the maturity of the business, despite the very limited operations history.

HOW WE HELPED

Category leadership narrative

  • There was very little strategy vision in how the client company would win the market. The existing competitor was much larger, with a hugely successful token sale completed and multiple partners
  • Faced with the need to persuade the investors the company has a chance to lead the category, we have worked together to uncover elements of the business that gave it a valid chance to win long-term
  • We defined the vision towards key competitive advantages that ultimately won the investors: speed to market vs competition as proof of agility & velocity; more attractive business model fundamentals and a marketing blueprint for driving further virality of the business

The emotional element

Finally, we have added a strong emotional element to the deck. By highlighting client’s strong and loving community, testimonials, and user stories, we were able to quickly build investors’ trust – ultimately providing the client with a strong competitive edge of dozens of other similar pitches.

Immediate impact

25-slide pitch deck with a 10 page teaser, delivered within 3 days since start of the work

$18M

raised in the Series A round, from some of the most prominent crypto funds

3.6x

raised in the Series A round, from some of the most prominent crypto funds

1 week

response rate; with over 30 meetings booked in the first 2 weeks of the investor outreach