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AQUA
The Gaming-Only NFT community marketplace
About AQUA
AQUA.xyz operated as a specialized marketplace for the web3 gaming sector, providing a platform for players to trade in-game assets in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The company was founded by CEO Sean Ryan, a former executive at Facebook where he led the gaming and payments verticals, and co-founder John Cahlil. The duo had previous entrepreneurial experience, having co-founded Meez, an early metaverse company, in 2008.
The firm's core business was centered on creating a player-focused community marketplace that offered deep insights and data on in-game items, giving gamers the tools and information needed to buy, sell, and trade digital assets from popular web3 titles. AQUA aimed to address common friction points in web3 gaming by providing a more seamless user experience compared to general-purpose NFT marketplaces. A key product was an embedded marketplace that allowed game developers to integrate a storefront directly into their games, enabling players to make purchases without leaving the game client. This B2B solution was designed to be compatible with various development engines and blockchains to improve player retention and revenue for game studios. The company generated revenue through transactions on its marketplace. It partnered with several prominent web3 games, including 'Gods Unchained', 'Guild of Guardians', and 'Undead Blocks'.
In September 2022, AQUA announced a significant milestone, securing a $10 million investment from DIGITAL, a web3 venture firm backed by Steven Cohen of Point72 Asset Management. This funding was intended to fuel the launch and expansion of its flagship marketplace. Despite its efforts to build a dedicated gaming ecosystem and partnerships with platforms like Immutable X and Polygon Labs, AQUA faced significant headwinds. In November 2023, the company announced it would cease operations, citing challenges in raising further capital and slower-than-anticipated growth in the web3 gaming market.
Source: Dealroom company dataAt a glance
- Status
- Operational
- Founded
- 2022
- Headquarters
- New York City, United States
- Employees
- 6
- Open positions
- None listed
- Dealroom signal
- 56.4/100
- Industry
- Gaming, Media
- Sector
- Gaming, NFT, Crypto and Web3, Hard Tech
- Technology
- Blockchain
- Business model
- Marketplace & ecommerce
- Client focus
- b2c
Knowledge graph
More headlines
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EARLY VCOther financing | Sep 2022 | $10M | $40M | DIGITAL | ↗ |
Financials
Revenue, earnings and other financial measures where available. Years marked “E” are estimates.
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for AQUA is 630 monthly website visits, down 27.6% over the last three months. AQUA's team declined 78.6% over the past year.
Similar companies
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Investments and acquisitions
Recent portfolio relationships for companies that also act as investors or acquirers.
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Series A1 investor entered at this stage
DIGITAL
Other known investors2 additional known investors
The General Partnership
Thiel Fellowship
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about AQUA on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
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