Update on investment in Pluto Digital Assets plc

RNS Number : 4953W

RiverFort Global Opportunities PLC

22 December 2021

 

22 December 2021

RiverFort Global Opportunities plc

("RGO" or the "Company")

Update on investment in Pluto Digital Assets plc

RGO, notes an update made by its investee company, Pluto Digital Assets plc ("Pluto"), a technology company that is operating in the exciting digital assets sector and one of the Company's pre-IPO investee companies.  A summary of an update that has recently been provided by Pluto to its shareholders is provided below.

Further details of the Pluto shareholder update can be found at https://plutodigital.medium.com/pluto-enters-the-play-to-earn-crypto-games-market-37e5b8885529 .

Metaverse acquisition and joint venture

Pluto has recently acquired a strategic holding in a leading UK-based computer gaming software studio which marks its entrance into the Play2Earn ("P2E") market. P2E refers to the concept of gaming in which a platform provides its players with a chance to earn a form of in-game assets that can be transferred to the real world as a valuable resource. P2E has become an exciting area of cryptocurrency, with the initial P2E games securing substantial token market capitalisations, such as Axie Infinity (market cap of $6 billion) and Gala Games (market cap of $3 billion).

In addition to acquiring this strategic holding, Pluto and the computer gaming studio are in the process of forming a joint venture to launch a suite of blockchain-enabled games. This investment and joint venture, further details of which are expected to be announced in early January 2022, have already progressed the concept development of new portfolio of games and will focus on high quality gamer experiences, with the added benefit of providing the gamers with the ability to acquire and monetise game assets. During 2022, Pluto expects to launch Non-fungible Tokens ("NFTs") and tokens that will secure funding for the development of these games without requiring additional equity capital.

Pluto Ventures

During the year, the Pluto Ventures division invested circa $5 million across 90 different early-stage digital ventures comprising different verticals, including Decentralised Finance ("Defi"), NFTs and P2E gaming.

The first quarter of 2021 was dominated by Defi and NFT-related technologies, with P2E becoming much more prominent during Q2 2021 and remaining a key area of focus throughout the rest of the year. Pluto noted that the value of its investments in listed tokens has increased significantly and it has also sought to de-risk positions during times of relative strength during the year.  Approximately one third of its listed tokens portfolio derives from P2E gaming and Gaming Guilds and these tokens have performed exceptionally well in 2021.

Pluto's portfolio of NFTs has also performed strongly, particularly the projects acquired during Q2 2021. More generally, activity in and the prominence of the NFT sector has increased markedly, partly through partnerships, which include companies such as XCAD Network and Good Games.

YOP

As announced by the Company on 1 October 2021, Pluto acquired the assets of the innovative DeFi project, Yield Optimisation Platform ("YOP"). Since its acquisition, the Pluto Labs product team has grown significantly. Pluto has also released a roadmap for the next 12 months for YOP, and the company has been working on a YOP whitepaper which outlines its plans for the updated YOP ecosystem across multiple protocols and blockchains. In addition, the company has progressed both the revised Tokenomics, with a focus on the long-term sustainability of the protocol, and the redesign of YOP website, which it intends to launch in January 2022. Pluto also expects to privately release its platform to YOP NFT token holders in February 2022.

RGO holds 21,666,667 shares in Pluto which are carried at a valuation of 6p per share based on the company's last funding round, notwithstanding the progress being made by the company since that date.

Philip Haydn-Slater, Non-executive Chairman of RGO commented:

"We are pleased to note the excellent progress made by Pluto. By way of its strategic shareholding and joint venture with a leading UK-based computer gaming software studio, the company is now entering the exciting P2E market, where it intends to release a suite of blockchain-enabled games.

Pluto's Ventures division has also reported the value of its listed tokens increase significantly with a strong performance across its portfolio of NFTs, when NFTs are continuing to gain increased mainstream attention.

We firmly believe that our investment in Pluto will continue to grow in value as the company implements its growth strategy."

Enquiries:

Pires Investments plc Philip Haydn-Slater Nicholas Lee, Director	Tel: [phone]
Joint Broker Peterhouse Capital Limited Lucy Williams	Tel: [phone]
Joint Broker Shard Capital Partners LLP Damon Heath	Tel: [phone]

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