Karate Combat, a sports league featuring live-action full-contact martial arts, has recently secured $18 million in funding in a round led by BITKRAFT Ventures and Cypher Capital.
Other investors include Alpha Wave Global, Delphi Digital, The Operating Group, Hashkey, Lattice, M13, Santiago R Santos, RooxieXBT, as well as the League’s founders, Packy McCormick’s Not Boring Capital, and Keyboard Monkey. This funding will be used to support the launch of the Karate Combat App and $KARATE token on May 10th.
Karate Combat was founded in 2018 and is considered the world’s premier full-contact striking league. The league uses XR technology to create immersive CGI environments, transporting viewers into a virtual world where they can experience martial arts in an unprecedented way.
The platform is streamed and broadcasted to over 100 countries worldwide, and its broadcasts mark the first time a sports league has blended extensive real-time virtual effects with real-life athletics. The league has approximately 100 full-time exclusive fighters, including world champions Rafael Aghayev, Raymond Daniels, Luiz Rocha, and Ross Levine, as well as UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten as the league’s lead announcer.
One unique aspect of Karate Combat is that it is the first sports league structured to give token holders in a decentralised autonomous organisation (“DAO”) control over the direction of the league.
The $KARATE token is used to govern the league and gamify the live viewing experience, allowing token holders to vote on fighters, earn additional tokens with no risk of loss, and boost their favorite fighters’ potential prize pools.
Karate Combat’s innovative approach to blending combat sports, augmented reality, and Web3 technology has garnered significant interest from investors. “This might be one of the most innovative projects I’ve seen in Web3 today,” said Bill Qian, Chairman of Cypher Capital. “We are fascinated to see what comes next and we are proud to support in any way we can.”
