Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based metaverse startup focused on NFTs and gaming, has raised $358,888,888 in a new funding round and is now valued at over $5 billion.
The round was led by Liberty City Ventures, with other investors including Soros Fund Management, Sequoia China, 10T Holdings, Mirae Asset, Pacific Century Group, ParaFi Capital, and Winklevoss Capital.
The funding round represents a doubling in Animoca’s value in less than three months. The venture capital firm raised $65 million at a $2.2 billion valuation in October.
“Animoca Brands is working to build the open metaverse by bringing digital property rights to online users through the use of blockchain and NFTs; these technologies enable the true digital ownership of users’ virtual assets and data, and make possible various DeFi and GameFi opportunities (including play-to-earn), asset interoperability, and an open framework that can lead to greater equitability for all participants,” says the official press-release. “Animoca Brands and subsidiaries offer a broad portfolio of game products, both centralized and decentralized, branded and original, with coverage across most primary platforms including mobile devices, game consoles, PC, web, and blockchain. Products include games ranging from hyper-casual to hardcore, as well as collectibles, utility tokens, esports titles, and more.”
Some of the company’s major blockchain game projects include The Sandbox and its associated utility token SAND, the upcoming Phantom Galaxies, the REVV token ecosystem (REVV Racing, F1® Delta Time, MotoGP™ Ignition, and Formula E: High Voltage), the Arc8 platform and its GAMEE utility token, as well as the TOWER, LMT, BONDLY, and PROSPER token projects, among others.
In addition to its product development and publishing businesses, Animoca Brands is an active investor in more than 150 of the world’s most meaningful NFT and metaverse-related companies, including OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Yield Guild Games, Star Atlas, Axie Infinity, Thetan Arena, and many others.
Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, commented: “We are pleased to see continued and growing support from influential and strategic investors for Animoca Brands’ mission to deliver true digital property rights and build the open metaverse. We have set ourselves the ambitious goals of building an open Web3 and facilitating an open metaverse that expands financial inclusion. In 2021 we saw tremendous growth in this space and Animoca Brands has been one of the forefront leaders in the development of this industry. We believe we are still at the initial stages of a new Internet revolution, and there are tremendous opportunities ahead of us in 2022 and beyond.”