Curio Announces $5.7 Million Funding Round to Launch Duper Season One, Co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and SevenX Ventures

[PRESS RELEASE – San Francisco, United States, August 6th, 2024]

Duper invites players to experience high-stakes fun and strategic gameplay.

Curio, a games studio and developer, today announced it has raised an additional $5.7 million in capital, co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and SevenX Ventures with participation from OKX Ventures. The latest round builds upon the $2.9 million raised in 2022 led by Bain Capital Crypto.

Concurrently, Curio has released Duper, their flagship strategy game, along with the launch of its first season. Duper is a wagering social strategy game that highlights collusion, deception, and social team-play, where 5 players engage in 40 minute high-stakes matches filled with strategic maneuvers and pure chaotic fun. Duper takes inspiration from real money skill based games like Poker, while combining it with a digital medium strategy players are familiar with, in the browser.

“Our goal for Duper is to become the best digital-native, skill-based wagering game. The most enduring skill-based wagering games today, Poker and Mahjong, were created decades ago, long before video games existed. Duper is the best of both worlds — combining the thrilling mechanics of a skill-based wagering game together with the immersive medium of a video game,” said Yijia Chen, CEO and Co-Founder.

“While most crypto games attempt to imitate existing video games, we looked in another direction at classic board games and card games that are simple, infinitely replayable, and integrate stakes with the game meaningfully, as part of the core game design. Because of this unique form factor, Duper is highly accessible. We want Duper to be a household name, just like Catan and Poker are,” added Kevin Zhang, Co-founder.

The Duper team includes web2 gaming veterans from renowned studios such as MiHoYo (Genshin Impact) and Lilith (Rise of Kingdoms), along with top web3 talent, all working together to redefine the gaming landscape. Founded in 2022, Curio is dedicated to building groundbreaking games and infrastructure that leverage blockchain technology to create uniquely new experiences.

“Duper is a seemingly never ending fountain of strategic depth. Making alliances and trades are as common as deception and heart-thumping risks. Never count a player out, for in Duper, the pot is claimed by those that account for all possibilities.”, added PhyzixTeacher, core contributor at Citadel.

Web3 games today fail to retain players due to the lack of engaging game design. Without a strong core loop that works synergistically with crypto, these games tend to be either unexciting or tiring replicas of existing web2 games. Currently, no games successfully integrate stakes and money with enjoyable novel gameplay. Many developers focus on creating hyper-casual games or massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), which struggle to compete with web2 games in the long run. Duper looks in another direction and fills this gap by being the “poker for web3”, or the “go-to crypto board game” developed from the ground up with a unique IP.

“We’ve worked with the Curio team since inception and continue to be impressed with their vision for how next generation games can leverage blockchain components,” said Stephan Cohen, Partner at Bain Capital Crypto. “By focusing on emergent social dynamics and skill-based wagering, Curio combines the best elements of classic games like Poker and Mahjong with the immersive nature of video games. We’re excited to partner with them as they develop the next generation of strategy games.”

Today, Duper releases its first season — a month plus tournament with big prize pools. Currently, players can claim loot boxes, which unlock emblems that form the economic foundation of the Duper ecosystem.

To begin playing Duper and stay up to date on upcoming announcements, users can visit duper.gg.

About Curio 

Curio is a leading crypto games studio on a mission to create groundbreaking games that leverage blockchain technology to enhance player experiences. Curio’s first game, Treaty, is a 4X strategy game that allows players to create arbitrary on-chain social agreements and “treaties” with each other. Curo is backed by Bain Capital Crypto, SevenX Ventures, TCG Crypto, OKX Ventures, Formless Capital, Smrti Labs, and Robot Ventures.

About Duper

Duper is a unique social strategy game that combines wagering with elements of collusion and team play. Launched in May 2024, Duper offers an immersive and replayable gaming experience where players can engage in high-stakes strategic battles.

For additional details and to stay updated, users can follow Curio and Duper on Twitter: Curio Twitter and Duper Twitter.