Animoca Brands, the Hong Kong-based company advancing digital property rights for gaming and the metaverse, announced Tuesday it will acquire Australian digital marketing agency Be Media to focus on key opportunities in Australia centered around blockchain development.

Following the acquisition, in its new capacity as an Animoca Brands company, Be Media will spearhead partnerships with major Australian brands as its parent company pursues the goals of advancing the emergence of the open metaverse and delivering digital property rights to online users via blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Animoca Brands said in a statement.

In line with its expanded scope after the acquisition, it said Be Media has begun an aggressive hiring process in the fields of blockchain development and project management to support the expanding pipeline of opportunities that the company will handle.

According to the statement, Australian entrepreneur Jordan Fogarty, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Be Media, will retain a significant minority ownership and continue his role as Chief Executive Officer of the acquired entity with responsibility for all business operations.

Fogarty, an early investor and supporter of Animoca Brands, has previously served on the board of OliveX Holdings Limited, the fitness metaverse company created and spun out by Animoca Brands.

“The acquisition of Be Media will allow Animoca Brands to extend its core capabilities to support the Australian market and beyond. There are tremendous opportunities in Australia and Be Media will enhance our ability to work with companies that wish to participate in the exciting opportunities presented by the emerging open metaverse,” said Yat Siu, the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands.

Be Media was founded in 2013 and established itself as a premium player in the Web 2.0 space focusing on digital strategy, search, and social advertising. The company has offices across Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne, and high-profile clients including Audi, Harley Davidson, and Finbar.

“I couldn’t be more excited to join Yat and Animoca Brands, the dominant frontrunner in Web3 with a bold vision to help to build a truly open and decentralised metaverse. I’m honoured to have the opportunity to support cherished Australian brands who want to explore opportunities in this space and introduce their customers to the metaverse, NFTs, and the power of digital property rights,” said Fogarty.

“When I started Be Media in 2013, I did so based on the power of digital to create massive and scalable impact. The ways in which we create that impact have evolved and been refined over the last eight years, and now by becoming a part of the Animoca Brands family we will be able to make that impact global and lasting,” he added.

Animoca Brands is a firm involved in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights. It develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E.

The company has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Bondly, Lympo, Grease Monkey Games, and Eden Games. It has a growing portfolio of more than 170 investments in NFT-related companies and decentralized projects that are contributing to building the open metaverse, including Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others.

Hong Kong’s Animoca Brands to acquire French blockchain game developer Darewise