SINGAPORE-BASED game studio Eyeball Games has raised US$1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round, it said on Thursday (Jul 20).

Technology investment platform White Star Capital, which led the round, invested from its Ubisoft-backed Digital Asset Fund. Ubisoft is a French video game publisher known for its Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry game franchises.

The round included participation from Web3 investors Polygon Ventures and Immutable, venture capital funds Ocular and Great South Gate Ventures, and other angel investors.

The startup said it will release its first game, Eyeball Pool, in phases. Holders of the game’s non-fungible tokens will be the first to try it out on the Internet as a closed beta test. It plans to launch the game fully in the first quarter of 2024.

Eyeball Pool is a Web3-enabled mobile game. It will launch on the Polygon x Immutable zkEVM chain on a platform built specifically for games.

Chief executive officer Jonathan Ivarsson founded Eyeball Games in 2022 together with Karsten Niemer and Thomas Elgaard, the original creators of mobile pool game 8 Ball Pool.

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The startup has world No 1 pool player Efren Reyes as an ambassador for Eyeball Pool, and Chris Johnson as its marketing manager for the Philippines.