Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based company in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification, announced Thursday it has closed a capital raise for $65 million conducted at a pre-money valuation of $2.2 billion.
Investors in the round included Liberty City Ventures, Ubisoft Entertainment, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, Com2uS, Kingsway Capital, 10T Holdings, Token Bay Capital, Smile Group, Tess Ventures, MSA Capital, Octava Fund, Adit Ventures, Summer Capital, Sigitech Holdings, Black Anthem Ltd, Mirana Corp, and Justin Sun.
The new capital will be used to fund strategic investments and acquisitions, product development, and licenses for popular intellectual properties, said Animoca Brands in a statement.
Animoca Brands is bringing digital property rights to online users, primarily for consumer video game players and the metaverse, through the use of blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These technologies enable the true digital ownership of users’ virtual assets and data and offer various play-to-earn capabilities, asset interoperability, and DeFi/GameFi opportunities.
The global video game market is estimated to generate $175.8 billion in 2021. In the last few years, Animoca Brands has established itself as one of the world’s leading technology groups in blockchain and gaming by spearheading and innovating decentralized in-game rewards and monetization in video games.
Earlier in the year, Animoca Brands raised $138.88 million on the strength of its plan to deliver digital property rights via NFTs.
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 REVV Racing, F1 Delta Time, MotoGP Ignition, and Formula E: High Voltage in the REVV token ecosystem, as well as The Sandbox and its associated utility token SAND, and the GAMEE, TOWER, and LMT tokens.
In addition to its product development and publishing businesses, Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 100 investments in some of the world’s most meaningful NFT-related companies, including OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Bitski, Star Atlas, and Axie Infinity. It also owns multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, and Lympo. In partnership with Brinc, Animoca Brands recently launched Launchpad Luna, an accelerator for global startups in the blockchain and NFT space.
“In 2018 we laid out a strategy based on our assessment that in the future digital property rights would revolutionize industries by expanding financial inclusion and that this significant change would start with NFT adoption in games. That future is already here. With the backing of our new strategic investors, Animoca Brands will continue to advance blockchain in gaming – and beyond – to introduce billions of gamers and Internet users to true digital ownership,” said Animoca Brands’ Co-founder and Executive Chairman Yat Siu.
Dragonfly Capital’s Partner Mia Deng said he believes that the gaming, art, and music industries are entering a digital renaissance period uniquely enabled by blockchain.
“Yat and his team have demonstrated vision and foresight from the beginning and we are therefore excited to partner with Animoca Brands to build some of the largest on-ramps of the virtual world,” he added.
Summer Capital’s Founder and Chairman Joseph Chee said, he believes this transaction marks the acceleration of a new era, and Animoca Brands is driving the practical applications of advanced blockchain technology and a new way of life.
“We are excited to be a part of Animoca Brands’ journey and future successes. Summer Capital will continue to invest in the blockchain space with strong conviction,” he said.
MSA Capital spokesperson commented, MSA has both invested in and tracked the evolution of social and gaming apps globally.
“We believe crypto not only provides novel in-game monetization but also precipitates new systems for digital rights, begetting NFTs and metaverses. Animoca Brands has been a pioneer in this burgeoning space and we believe this team has the right skillset and tools to usher in this new digital world,” he said.
Token Bay Capital’s General Partner Lucy Gazmararian said Animoca Brands is at the forefront of the blockchain gaming revolution, pioneering the next generation gaming experience where gaming, digital property rights, and digital economies intersect to create new ecosystems which empower individual users like never before.
Animoca Brands has executed subscription agreements with various institutional and professional investors to raise a total of $65 million at a subscription price of A$2.00 ($1.51) per share, for a total of 43.8 million new shares.
Animoca Brands’ corporate advisor Everest Ventures Group advised on and assisted with this capital raise.