Introducing YGG’s First Regional SubDAO: YGG SEA

YGG South East Asia (YGG SEA) is a specialized economy that forms part of the main YGG DAO. As YGG’s first regional subDAO, YGG SEA will deliver a targeted offering to the regional gaming community to serve the needs of play-to-earn gamers in every Southeast Asian (SEA) country except the Philippines. With a mandate to invest locally within the region, YGG SEA is focused on supporting locally developed play-to-earn games and acquiring game assets that are uniquely suited to the needs and interests of SEA’s player base. YGG SEA has over 4,000 scholars from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, and has partnered with over 30 play-to-earn games.

According to the ​​2021 Geography of Cryptocurrency report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, Central and Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) is the world’s fourth largest cryptocurrency market, accounting for 14% of global transaction value between July 2020 and June 2021. SEA is a subregion of broader Asia, representing over 700 million people from 11 countries. Growth in cryptocurrency usage in SEA has been particularly sharp in the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia which are all among the top 10 Metamask users as reported by the crypto wallet last August 2021. Much of this activity was driven by the rise of Axie Infinity, which now has over 2.5 million daily active users according to DappRadar.

Adoption of play-to-earn games such as Axie and others spread rapidly throughout the Philippines thanks to Filipinos’ high level of English language literacy, social media savvy, and good access to the internet. However, countries across SEA such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand are extremely nuanced in terms of their culture and local language, as well as their levels of digital literacy and readiness. As such, YGG SEA will focus on tailoring its go-to-market strategy to the specific needs and challenges of each market. Ultimately, the purpose of the subDAO is to ensure that the requirements of localized player communities are properly addressed while also contributing back to the main YGG DAO at a global level.

YGG SEA is in full control of its own operations and is currently establishing operations in each country, with an initial concentration on Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand before expanding wider throughout the region. Localized leadership teams oversee the delivery of language-specific support services as well as the creation of tailored educational content. They will also establish strategic partnerships with locally regulated service providers.

“As we roll out across the world, subDAOs like YGG SEA are core to YGG’s expansion strategy as they have the local knowledge and networks. The team launching YGG SEA has deep experience driving tech adoption in the region, and the demand for play-to-earn games throughout Asia is incredibly strong,” said Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games.

Having raised $15M in funding to date, YGG SEA has already invested in regionally-significant play-to-earn games such as Sipher, Thetan Arena, Aavegotchi among others, and are in the works of establishing more partnerships with high-quality games that their community will enjoy.

The YGG SEA subDAO also has its own guild badge as a symbol of membership to the guild. As of mid-January 2021, there were already more than 166,000 holders of the non-transferable NFT which can be minted at the YGG SEA website.

YGG SEA also announced that it will be launching its SEA token via the Copper platform in early 2022. This will be an opportunity for our community to get their hands on the SEA token and access a world of opportunities in the YGG ecosystem. Read more about the SEA token here.

The YGG SEA core team is composed of gaming and crypto industry leaders working towards bringing a localized play-to-earn experience to Southeast Asia, with a vision to foster crypto inclusion in the region.

YGG SEA co-founder and CEO Evan Spytma is a veteran of the video game space with a career spanning more than 20 years across executive positions within Unity Technologies, Electronic Arts and PopCap Games, driving this industry forward to Southeast Asia to further success.

According to Evan, “As the first YGG subDAO, we are pioneering the model for the benefit of some of the most active NFT nations in the world. While the Philippines has been the epicenter of the play-to-earn movement over the past year, demand is rising fast in other countries, and Southeast Asia is an incredibly diverse region. It’s critical to have teams like ours, with boots on the ground and an understanding of the local needs and cultural nuances, who can build the regional community from the ground up.”

Irene Umar, co-founder and country manager for Indonesia, started her career in corporate finance and worked in Indonesia, the UAE, India and Singapore before jumping into the world of gaming. In 2016, she started the first gaming VC in the region focused on investing in start-up companies along with the gaming ecosystem in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Dan Wang, head of investments, graduated from Princeton University with a degree in economics. He is an active angel investor in sustainability and entertainment and is a venture partner at Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC). Dan held international leadership roles in the finance and tech industries before embracing gaming. He joined Riot Games in 2013 and first led its international publishing and infrastructure and global expansion teams before heading operations for Riot China after Tencent’s acquisition of the company.

Read more about the team in this Medium post.

A seed round was led by YGG and Infinity Ventures Crypto in August 2021. In November, an additional private round was led by Crypto.com Capital, Animoca Brands, MindWorks Ventures, Poloniex, Jump Capital and Sembrani Kiqani by BRI Ventures, with participation from Circle, Digital Currency Group, Hashed, Polygon, Bukalapak, United Overseas Bank (UOB) Venture Management, Arca Funds, Evernew Capital, OKEx Blockdream Ventures, Yolo Ventures, SevenX Ventures, LongHash Ventures, HashKey Group, Morningstar Ventures, Rise Capital, Dialectic, SweeperDAO, PetRock Capital, DNC Ventures, FBG Capital and Emfarsis.

As covered by global and Southeast Asian media:

Last December 10, 2021, YGG SEA streamed an AMA session with the YGG YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon. Watch the video on Facebook or YouTube, or read an excerpt from YGG’s Substack to learn more about YGG SEA, how it functions as YGG’s subDAO, and their upcoming plans.

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