According to the year-end report (1) published by Metaverse Post, the Web3 space brought in a total of $7.1 billion in funding for 2022, with Gaming, Metaverse, and Social Networks becoming the three top funding categories.
Per report's findings, the total amount of capital invested in startup businesses in Gaming, Metaverse, Social Networks, Infrastructure, Artificial Reality and Virtual Reality (AR & VR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) was exactly $7,169,997,888.
The total amount is $4.8 billion more than it would have been in 2021, notwithstanding the bear market.
The gaming category finished the year as the most popular, while the artificial intelligence category came in last.
Gaming
The gaming industry emerged victorious, bringing in $4.49 billion, representing 62.5% of the entire value committed by Web3 companies.
According to the report's findings, Epic Games was the company that brought in the most major investment in 2022. The investment came from Sony and LEGO owner KIRKBI, which was for 2 billion dollars. At the end of the year, a valuation of $31.5 billion was assigned to Epic Games.
Metaverse
Following the Gaming industry as the second largest category that garnered investment in 2022 was the Metaverse industry. According to the research, the metaverse sphere was able to secure money to the tune of $ 1.82 billion, representing 25.4% of the overall investment.
Yuga Labs, the business responsible for creating the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has become the second firm to receive the biggest funding sum. Yuga Labs successfully launched the Otherside metaverse in March after raising 450 million dollars in investment.
Social Networking Websites
The third most popular category among investors was that of startups that build social networking applications that are fit for the decentralized & secure manner of the Web3. In 2022, the category brought in a total of $259.1 million, sufficient to cover 3.6% of the entire invested amount in Web3.
The necessity for Web3 social network protocols is brought to light by CryptoSlate's exclusive content created in collaboration with Phaver as well as with Aave and Lens Protocol, as well as by Lens Protocol's and Polkadot's endeavors on the matter.
Infrastructure, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and Artificial Intelligence
Infrastructure, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and Artificial Intelligence were the final three categories, each receiving $200.8 million, $178.6 million, and $136.5 million.
Immutable, which focuses on NFTs, Improbable, which focuses on the Metaverse, Sky Mavis, which focuses on games; and start-up-focused projects all fit within the infrastructure category.
AngelList has made it into the top 10 startups with the most significant funding. During the investment round, Immutable brought in $200 million, AngelList brought in $100 million, and Sky Mavis and Improbable brought in $150 million.
Biggest spenders
This year, the top four spenders in the venture capital industry were four companies, each of which invested more than one billion dollars.
Among these, Paradigm came out on top by spending a total of $2.5 billion in 2022. The organization provided financial assistance to 31 programs, including Uniswap, Magic Eden, and Optimism.
Andreessen Horowitz came in a close second after Paradigm with a total investment of $2.2 billion after the former.
Hivemind, the youngest venture capital firm of them all, set aside $1.5 billion in 2022 and achieved the third position in the ranking; Binance Labs, which invested $1 billion, moved up to the fourth place and took the spot previously held by Hivemind.
