Dubai — Karate Combat, a live-action full-contact martial arts sports league, recently announced an $18 million dollar funding round led by BITKRAFT Ventures and Cypher Capital.

Additional participants included Alpha Wave Global, Delphi Digital, The Operating Group, Hashkey, Lattice, M13, Santiago R Santos, RooxieXBT and others. Prior investors include the League’s founders, Packy McCormick's Not Boring Capital, and Keyboard Monkey. The funding will be used to support the May 10th launch of the Karate Combat App and $KARATE token.

Founded in 2018, Karate Combat is the world's premier full-contact striking league, blending the excitement of live-action, full-contact karate with immersive CGI environments powered by the Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. Through the use of XR technology, Karate Combat is able to transport viewers into a virtual world where they can experience the excitement of martial arts in a way that was never before possible. Its live broadcasts mark the first time a sports league has blended extensive real-time virtual effects with real-life athletics.

With 4.5 million followers and 10 million views per event, the league is streamed and broadcast to over 100 countries worldwide. Distributors include Eurosport, Globo’s Combate, MatchTV, BeIN Sports, CBS Sports, and ESPN Deportes. The League has approximately 100 full-time exclusive fighters which include world champions like Rafael Aghayev, Raymond Daniels, Luiz Rocha, and Ross Levine as well as UFC Hall of Famer Bas Rutten as the league’s lead announcer.

Karate Combat is the first sports league structured to give the token holders in a decentralized autonomous organization (“DAO”) control over the direction of the league. On May 10th, the company will launch the Karate Combat UP Only Gaming App and $KARATE token. As part of the new app, fans can collect free $KARATE tokens. The $KARATE token both governs the League and gamifies the live viewing experience. Holders of the $KARATE token can use the league’s smart contracts, web apps and mobile apps to vote on fighters, earn additional $KARATE tokens with no risk of loss, and boost their favorite fighters’ potential prize pools, above and beyond their contracted pay.

“We are thrilled to partner with the top venture partners both worldwide and within the GCC region where we currently have a number of initiatives planned which will take our DAO to the next level,” said Robert Bryan, Karate Combat Founder.

“This might be one of the most innovative projects I’ve seen in Web3 today” said Bill Qian, Chairman of Cypher Capital. “Creating a harmony between this incredible combat sport, augmented reality and the best parts of web3 is like nothing else we have ever seen. We are fascinated to see what comes next and we are proud to support in any way we can.”

For more information on Karate Combat, please visit https://www.karate.com/