NEAR and Press Start Team to Level Up Web3 Gaming

NEAR Foundation is excited to announce a new partnership with Press Start Capital, a seed stage venture fund focused on full-stack Web3 gaming, metaverse, and entertainment. This follows the Press Start x Orange DAO Web3 Fellowship announced earlier this year. 

With NEAR, Press Start is looking to identify, fund, and support the leading Web3 builders and creators of what it calls a “new Golden Age of Entertainment.” Press Start Capital will join NEAR’s network of partner funds. 

In this new partnership, information and industry insights-sharing between NEAR and Press Start will be vital. Press Start will provide investment and mentorship support to Web3 gaming and entertainment projects building on NEAR. Press Start and its portfolio companies will also have access to the Foundation and ecosystem’s vast network of fund partners—a critical piece in building the new era of gaming. Game developers that aren’t committed to a blockchain will have access to priority NEAR support to help build and ship their Web3 gaming apps and products.

Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation, said:  “This is a fantastic partnership that will help us to attract the very best projects to our protocol. We look forward to leveraging this opportunity by working closely with Press Start to identify and support exceptional talent and to give creators the tools they need to build without limits on NEAR.”

Community front and center

Both NEAR and Press Start see the future of gaming as being community-driven. The partners are fully aligned in manifesting a world where players take part in the creation and ownership of the games, stories, and assets they cherish. 

“As crypto eats software and gaming eats culture, we believe now is the time to build a new Golden Age of Entertainment that will unleash a new generation of community-owned games, apps, and IP,” said Steven Chien, co-founder and General Partner at Press Start Capital. “We’re excited to collaborate with NEAR as a mission-aligned partner to support and grow a community of Web3 founders building community-driven products.”

With NEAR and Press Start, founders will help founders in a mutual learning environment. The partnership will also include deal flow sharing and community initiatives.

Press Start’s collaboration with NEAR partner OrangeDAO, a group of over 1,300 Y Combinator alumni, on a new fellowship is also part of this community-driven strategy. The fellowship featured participants building applications that will empower future Web3 users and communities.

Ten fellows completed a ten-week fellowship program designed to help Y Combinator alumni validate, build, and ship their next web3 project. Several fellows had closed a fundraising round and gained acceptance into top tier accelerators by the end of the fellowship program.   

Web3 gaming on NEAR: fast and infinitely scalable 

With the new NEAR and Press Start partnership, Web3 gaming developers can take full advantage of NEAR’s sharded, Proof-of-Stake (PoS), layer-one blockchain. Thanks to NEAR’s  unique Nightshade sharding implementation, gaming projects will join a dynamic ecosystem of 800+ active projects and over 125 DAOs, building on a protocol that is ever-expanding and decentralizing. 

Like the other developers, entrepreneurs, and creatives building on NEAR, Web3 gaming devs will have access to the NEAR community’s resources. From Web3 startup platform Pagoda to NEAR Education and other ecosystem players, gaming devs can tap into a vast web of Web3 technology and expertise. 

Future partnership opportunities

NEAR Foundation’s partnership with Press Start will evolve over time, combining the Foundation’s technological know-how with the VC fund’s investment and builder expertise. 

There is already potential for a co-sponsored accelerator and events centered on Web3 gaming and entertainment.