Animoca Brands, the Hong Kong-based game software and venture capital company has announced that it has completed a capital raise of $75 million.
The new capital will be used to continue funding strategic acquisitions, product development, investments, advance the open metaverse and secure licenses for popular intellectual properties.
Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, commented: “Digital property rights represent a society-defining generational shift that impacts everyone online and will set the stage for the emergence of the open metaverse. We are deeply honoured to continue to enjoy strong support from investors as we work to solidify the leadership position of Animoca Brands in the Web3 industry and in the field of true digital ownership.”
By utilising technologies from blockchain to NFTs, Animoca Brands is working to deliver true digital ownership of users’ virtual assets and data, enabling multiple DeFi and GameFi opportunities like play-to-earn, asset interoperability, and an open framework that can lead to greater equitability for all participants in the open metaverse.
The round was led by Liberty City Ventures where its managing partner Emil Woods stated, “Over the next decade, humanity will discover and embrace the game-changing power that blockchain-based digital ownership of assets will bring to countless aspects of daily life. We are proud to support Animoca Brands, a highly talented team of visionaries and builders at the forefront of this movement to embrace and fulfil the promise of Web3.”
The genie’s out of the bottle
Manuel Stotz, the founder and CEO of Kingsway Capital who are amongst the investors, said: “The genie of digital property rights has been let out of the bottle, and the internet users engaging with this revolutionary technology will not be returning to the digital servitude that is common in Web 2.0. The long-term growth trajectory of NFTs and similar ownership technology is extraordinarily steep, especially in emerging markets. We are thrilled to grow our continuing partnership with Animoca Brands, who earned its stripes by emerging from the previous crypto winter of 2018-2019 with a much larger and stronger business.”
Other investors include 10T Holdings, C Ventures, Delta Fund, Gemini Frontier Fund, Gobi Partners Greater Bay Area, L2 Capital, Mirae Asset, Pacific Century Group, ParaFi Capital, Provident, Senator Investment Group, Sequoia China, Smile Group, Stable Asset Management, Soros Fund Management, Wildcat Capital Management, and Winklevoss Capital.
Animoca Brands has strived to establish itself as one of the leading technology groups in blockchain and gaming as it continues to innovate decentralised in-game rewards and monetisation in video games for the forthcoming open metaverse.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
