Web3 gaming infrastructure startup Lysto announced on August 10 that it has raised more than $100 million from several high-profile investors including Tiger Global, Hashed, Beenext, Square Peg and Better Capital as blockchain gaming takes off in the country with $12 million in financing.

Web3 is billed as the next iteration of the internet, it will be decentralised and run on the blockchain.

Angel investors including former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Pantera Capital partner Paul Veradittakit, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and CoinGecko co-founders Bobby Ong and TM Lee also participated in the round.

The startup previously raised $3 million in seed funding in November 2021 from Beenext, Better Capital and several angel investors.

Founded by Sadiq Ahamed in 2021, Lysto is building tools aimed at standardizing gamer credentials and reputation across games, platforms and chains through the “Proof-of-Play Protocol (PoPP)” during the 2022 South Korean blockchain Seoul Chain Announce the week.

The startup said these PoPPs can be issued by games, tournaments, or even automatically generated by gamers, such as trophies, game and social badges, and playtester tokens.

It can also be shared with gamers via email, APIs (application programming interfaces), and AirDrops (the process by which developers distribute free coins or tokens to users as part of a marketing program).

It says gamers can show off their PoPP through a “passport,” which acts like their public profile.

“Through PoPP and Passport, Lysto enables the gaming ecosystem to standardise the reputation of gamers. We envision a world where billions of such on-chain proofs across games and tournaments can form the fundamental building blocks of gamer profiles. Leveraging this at one point, our mission is to build the largest gaming community in the world,” Ahmed said. Lysto currently has a team of 25 people.

Several local companies, including Dream11’s parent company Dream Sports, Nazara Technologies, nCore Games and Tegro, are eyeing the country’s Web3 gaming space as blockchain gains popularity.

The founders say that Web3 games may offer better monetization opportunities for game developers in India.