One of New Orleans’ newest startups, Gripnr, was announced last month during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week as a Web3 technology company bringing tabletop games to the blockchain. The startup has just announced its funding round totaling $2.5 million.
The funding was supported by XBTO Humla Ventures, Sopris Capital, Voodoo Ventures, Better Angels, Abstraction Ventures, and Carl Sparks, in addition to several New Orleans-based investors.
Gripnr co-founder Patrick Comer has been a lifelong fan of Dungeons & Dragons, perhaps one of the most well-known tabletop role playing games (TTRPGs). After selling his company Lucid last year– the first unicorn company in Louisiana– he was looking for his next venture.
“It was clear to me that tabletop roleplaying games is the perfect use case for the blockchain, so I decided to jump in and bring other gamers along for the ride,” shared Comer.
According to regional economic development agency Greater New Orleans, Inc., Comer is joined by Brent McCrossen, Kyle Mortensen, Justin Kamerer, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, and Luke Ledet. All of them have some connection to technology, art, entrepreneurship, or game creation.
The funding will primarily be used to launch The Glimmering, Gripnr’s first 5E tabletop game and genesis non-fungible token (NFT) collection this May. “In addition, they will use their treasury to finance and support the release of more tabletop games and other game designers and artists who want to utilize the company’s new protocol,” continued Greater New Orleans, Inc.
Gripnr’s team said they are focused on building an active, respectful, and great community around their tabletop games. To get involved, visit gripnr.com or theglimmering.com.
