Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based gaming and venture capital company, as well as the owner and developer of a highly popular crypto metaverse, The Sandbox, has announced it raised $358.89 million at over $5 billion valuation in the latest funding round led by Liberty City Ventures.
Key takeaways:
- According to a press release, Animoca Brands will continue to pursue its mission of “bringing digital property rights to online users through the use of blockchain and NFTs,” which the company considers being an integral part of building the open metaverse.
- Over the years, Animonca Brands has provided financial backing to some of the more prominent cryptocurrency projects in the broader blockchain sector, including digital wallet MetaMask, NFT marketplace OpenSea, and blockchain game Axie Infinity.
- The latest funding round has brought the total amount of capital Animoca Brands has raised to date to over $500 million, while its subsidiary The Sandbox separately raised $93 million in fresh capital during a financing round that took place in November 2021.
- Animoca Brands is a vital player in the GameFi sector, which is quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing areas of the global video game industry – as noted in the press release, the global video game market is estimated to generate $829 billion by 2028, up from $180 billion in 2021.
- Investments in blockchain gaming are picking up steam as of late. Earlier today, Mechanism Capital launched a $100 million fund dedicated to Play-to-Earn (P2E) mobile games, while both Solana Ventures and Gala Games launched their respective $100 million gaming funds in the past month.
