Animoca Brands Japan, a strategic subsidiary of Animoca Brands Corporation Limited (Animoca Brands), has on Thursday announced that it has invested in Virtual Arts, Inc to support Virtual Arts’ expansion in Japan and to provide content for DanceFight, a dance battle app published by Virtual Arts for the street dance community globally, with bracket-style tournaments, crowd and celebrity judge voting, and more.
Animoca Brands said in a statement that Virtual Arts is creating the new home for skill-based talents, with its first experience being the DanceFight app, in which dancers record their signature dance moves and compete in one-versus-one battles, tournaments, and leagues with other epic dancers.
Starting in May, dancers will be able to tap an “ANIMATE” button in DanceFight to transform themselves into dancing avatars to compete in bracket-style tournaments with crowd voting and prizes.
Animoca Brands previously invested in Virtual Arts. Together with Animoca Brands and Virtual Arts, Animoca Brands Japan will continue to work closely with athletes and artists to create a Web3 world in which they and their portfolio companies can give these creators the recognition and rewards they deserve.
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to invest in Virtual Arts, a company that has already been supported by our parent company Animoca Brands,
“We will continue to work with our head office to invest in the Web3 space to foster the growth of companies contributing to the Web3 ecosystem,” said Kyoya Okazawa, Co-Founder of Animoca Brands Japan/
“We believe that we will be able to accelerate Japan’s transition to Web3 by working with our headquarters to identify companies from around the world that have opportunities in Japan,
“Animoca Brands Japan will continue to do its utmost to contribute to the expansion of the Animoca Brands ecosystem,” he added.
Virtual Arts Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer Rich Sloan said the group’s mission is to provide a mobile video platform for talented individuals around the world and put them in the global spotlight.
According to him, the firm will be adding new features, transforming dance videos into avatars, and providing content in the Web3 space.
“The investment from Animoca Brands Japan will help us to bring our platform to the Japanese market and connect with Japanese street dancers, whose talents have been gaining worldwide attention,
“We will work with Animoca Brands Japan to create a society in which talent is rewarded for their contributions through solutions that Web3 uniquely makes possible,” he added.
The venture-backed mobile app company Virtual Arts Inc. is the creator of DanceFight – the home for talent and the leading competition platform for skill-based, head-to-head video competition.
The company is focusing initially on dance but will rapidly expand to support all forms of competition content, including singing, rap, skateboarding, and other action sports.
Founded in 2021, Animoca Brands Japan (corporate name: Animoca Brands K.K.) is the strategic subsidiary in Japan of Animoca Brands, a leading global Web3 company.
Animoca Brands Japan was established to support the global Web3 strategies of Japanese intellectual property and content holders such as major publishers, brands, education, sports teams, athletes, artists and game companies.
The firm provides a platform that combines IPs with blockchain technology, and supports IP holders to build their own ecosystem in through a full stack of Web3 services, providing a bridge between Japanese IPs and global fans.