Animoca Brands, the publisher of The Sandbox and investor in OpenSea and Axie Infinity, raised nearly $359 million in a funding round that boosted its valuation from $2.2 billion to $5 billion.

Among the participating firms in the funding round were Liberty City Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, George Soros's Soros Fund Management, Sequoia China, Gemini Frontier Fund, and 10T Holdings With the new funds, Animoca Brands plans to expand its interests in the metaverse, including acquiring and investing in strategic projects, product development, and licensing popular intellectual properties.

Yat Sui, co-founder and executive chair of Animoca Brands, said, “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.”

He adds, “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.”

Blockchain and NFT technology allows a variety of DeFi and Game Finance (GameFi) opportunities for online users. Animoca Brands is one of the leading players in the metaverse industry, working to establish digital property rights to users and offering a true sense of ownership over their virtual assets and data. 

The company, which is driven by the concept of "true digital ownership," or turning every item in the game into real assets, operates and invests in blockchain gaming and NFT-related companies. The Sandbox and Revv Racing are two of its most popular titles.

Animoca Brands raised US$216.28 million in 2021 for its vision of digital property rights and the open metaverse, while the metaverse market size is expected to reach US$829 billion by 2028.  More than 150 companies related to NFT and metaverse are invested by Animoca Brands, including OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Thetan Arena, Axie Infinity, Yield Guild Games, Star Atlas, and others.  

Pavan A

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA