Yolo Investments backs TON Foundation and three crypto startups with $8m investment
Estonian Yolo Investments, owned by Australian entrepreneur Tim Heath, has backed two crypto startups Tonstarter and Playdeck, which work with the TON blockchain platform, created by Telegram. The total amount of investments made was $8M. In addition to providing financial support to startups, Yolo Investment will also invest in Toncoin, TON Foundation, and a free educational platform called Learncrypto.com, which focuses on TON-related content and allows users to learn about cryptocurrencies and crypto trading. The product owner of Learncrypto.com is Ben Jones, who also worked as a content manager for Tim Heath's company Yolo Group.
Additionally, Yolo Investment has pledged to cooperate with the TON Foundation to support the development of Telegram messenger and turn it into a web3 SuperApp. TON targets to empower 500M users to own their digital identity, data, and assets by 2028.
The TON Foundation is a global, decentralized blockchain community that aims to educate Telegram users about cryptocurrencies and empower them to use crypto more frequently.
Founded in 2022 by Michael Gavrilov in the United Arab Emirates, Playdeck, formerly known as Ton Play, is a gaming marketplace. Based on the blockchain, it allows users to launch games as a Telegram web application in a short amount of time. The company collaborates with several game studios, offering more than 240K people access to more than 60 games. The company's platform enables the creation and publication of digital assets, allowing users to manage their games and generate revenue.
Based in London and co-founded by Sergey Chikirev in 2022, Tonstarter is an incubator that helps teams and crypto projects from other blockchains raise funding and then launch their solution on the TON blockchain. Additionally, it helps projects build partnerships and offers advisory, PR, and marketing services.
Founded in Estonia by Tim Heath in 2017, Yolo Investments focuses on seed- and A-stage investment across gaming and fintech. Tim Heath specializes in the iGaming industry. He is also a founder and a Board Member of the Yolo Group, which operates gaming brands such as bitcasino.io and sportsbet.io.
UPD: Yolo Investments has also backed Tel Aviv-based gaming company Fanton, founded in 2022 by Eldar Khayretdinov and Vadim Kostomarov-Sterlin. It was a seed round for Fanton.
Fanton has developed a TON Blockchain Fantasy Football game that operates on Telegram, where users can create and manage virtual football teams by selecting NFT cards of famous players, who participate in real matches. The game imitates tournaments of the top 5 European leagues and the Champions League. Players are rewarded with Toncoin cryptocurrency and new NFT cards for their chosen players’ actions in real matches, including goals scored, assists, and “clean sheets”. The game brings together more than 50K gamers.
