Mattel is home to some of the world’s most well-known and beloved brands, including Barbie, Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, American Girl, Thomas & Friends, UNO, and MEGA. It is clear that they hold some of the most iconic IPs in the toy industry. In January of this year, Mattel began its journey into web3 by auctioning three exclusive NFTs for a Barbie collaboration with the luxury fashion brand Balmain. RE3W covered this story in a recent report.
Mattel has now hired Mike DeLaet, former senior vice president of strategic partnerships at Scopely, as the global head of digital gaming. July 25th is apparently Mike DeLaet’s official start date. Mattel is hoping he will bring more gaming expertise to the company especially as they expand into web3 with their newest project collaboration – Cryptoys. He will apparently be responsible for accelerating Mattel’s digital gaming product offerings across all major gaming platforms, including licensing, self-publishing, and web3.
Cryptoys recently closed a $23 million Series A round led by a16z Crypto with participation from Mattel, Dapper Labs, Draper & Associates, Acrew Capital, CoinFund, Animoca Brands, and Sound Ventures. The startup had only just announced a $7.5 million seed round led by a16z Crypto in October of this year. You can read more about this project at RE3W or Game Fund Partners.
