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Open Scout - 8

Open Scout - 8

Harnessing the potential of testing/QA for better games + NFT appraisal: Understanding the true value of digital assets

December 03, 2022

Hello and welcome to the 8th edition of ! If you haven’t subscribed, join thousands of other readers by subscribing here:

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Surround yourself with a community of top early-stage founders who've launched 1,000+ companies.

On Deck Founders (ODF) is an invite-only community for early-stage founders who want to find a co-founder, validate an idea, or build traction towards a fundraise.

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Cherry-picked companies:

Epoch ↗

Founded: 2021

Geography: US

One-liner: QA/testing solution for your game projects.

Founder(s) background:Idan Beck — CTO @ Sandbox VRAkash Bhatia — CFO @ Sandbox VR, Naspers & Andela, Advisor @ Runway

Backed by (public source): Prefix Capital, South Park Commons, Precursor Ventures, Atypical Ventures, K5 Global, Flexport & Haystack.

Globally, the video game industry boomed during the pandemic, with 82% of global consumers playing video games or watching video game content during the height of lockdowns. The global video games market was estimated at $214 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow to $321 billion by 2026. A report by DFC Intelligence has revealed that there are over 3 billion gamers globally—over 40% of the entire human population! As the industry continues to grow both studios and publishers are actively looking for ways to further empower their testers and developers.

While making games can be fun, testing them isn't. The world of game development relies on testing/QA to ensure that when a game is launched, it pleases the intended audience and works as intended with limited bugs. No small task, especially as games become more expansive and complex. Automate it! Bad news — games aren’t so easy to automate.

The idea for Epoch was sparked by recognizing that testing/QA, a critical workhorse of the game development industry, does not receive enough attention. Epoch is already working with some stellar industry partners, including studios willing to suffer through their buggy early prototypes and PoCs.

Nabu ↗

Founded: 2022

Geography: UK

One-liner: The go-to valuation engine for NFTs.

Founder(s) background:Timur Csillik — CEO @ Whoosh (exited), cc2000Ricardo Basto — Software Engineer @ Toptal, CTO @ Whoosh, VexDiederik Kruijssen — Researcher @ European Research Council (ERC), KNAW

Backed by (public source): Founders Factory

Traction: 40 Million+ NFTs valued

In October 2022, the Financial Accounting Standards Board tentatively recommended that companies report certain digital assets like cryptocurrencies at fair value. Meanwhile in Singapore, the High Court has ruled that NFTs can be considered as property. With all these developments, understanding the true value of digital assets like NFTs to comply with accounting standards is one of the things every business should prepare for.

Nabu has created a machine-learning powered valuation engine to accurately price NFTs based on both open and proprietary data sources, including trade volumes, sales history, NFT metadata, social media hype, and more. Through constant learning and fine tuning, the appraisal engine has 5-10% MPE which is one of the lowest error rates in the industry.

Nabu allows our users to:

Manage NFTs in a similar way they manage their other investments and understand important factors such as previous and current market price, value drivers, P+L of their portfolio and much more.
Access financial utilities such as loans to access instant liquidity without selling their NFTs or insurance to protect their high worth digital assets.

Macroeconomic turmoil in 2022 has impacted the general interest in buying NFTs. The collapse of FTX, the third largest centralized crypto trading exchange, has only added to the uncertainty around cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Trading volumes have tumbled 88% from a record high in January this year. They slid to just $643 million in November from $17 billion at the start of 2022.

However, the NFT market is anything but dead, and its current downturn has more to do with socioeconomic and macroeconomic factors rather than a loss of collector interest. Moving forward, though, NFTs that bring real value and utility will be the ones that survive the market’s ebbs and flows. McKinsey & Co.’s research shows the metaverse could grow up to $5 trillion in value by 2030.

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Here's what Vance Roush, co-founder of Overflow had to say

"On Deck was catalytic in the earliest introductions to angel investors, giving us the momentum needed for later rounds of fundraising. Being around world-class people that are the best in the industry, and to be able to share knowledge was huge."

*Overflow raised a $10M Series A from R7 Partners