By
Steve Muchoki
April 23rd, 2024
Animoca Brands concluded its third funding round since May to bring the total amount of funds raised in that time to over $203M.
Animoca Brands announced on Wednesday, announced the completion of its latest funding round, which saw the company generate $65 million. The capital raise itself now values the blockchain/video game developer at $2.2 billion and is the third funding round since May.
New Funding Round of Animoca Brands
Participants in the new funding round of Animoca included French video game giant Ubisoft, Liberty City Ventures, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, Com2Us, and Kingsway Capital. Additionally, 10T, Token Bay Capital, Smile Group, Tess Ventures, MSA Capital, Octava Fund, and many more also invested.
In a press release, Animoca Brands says it will use the newly-generated funds for a slew of objectives. Some of these include strategic investments and acquisitions, product development, and key intellectual property licenses. Furthermore, since May, the company has now raised $203.88 million in funding, owed in large part making NFT games. Plus, these NFT games are primarily for digital property rights and digital collectibles.
Yat Siu, chairman of Animoca Brands, believes there are endless possibilities in the future of decentralized gaming based on blockchain technology. As Siu explained in an interview with CoinDesk:
“NFTs are really a digital store of culture. And we all engage in culture more than we engage in just money…People coming from finance often see crypto in financial terms, but with gaming, we’re coming at it from a cultural perspective.”
In addition, Siu also weighed in on the participating investors for the just-concluded funding round. In an interview with GamesBeat, the Animoca chairman called the joint initiative, “important for various strategic purposes.” Furthermore, Siu emphasized that the idea to conduct another capital-raising round was as a result of perceived investors’ eagerness.
Animoca Brands Is Part of a Thriving NFT Space
Animoca first found success in the NFT playing field by investing early in companies like Axie Infinity, Dapper Labs, and OpenSea. Furthermore, the blockchain-oriented company now has over 100 NFT-related ventures, according to its press release. Two of Animoca’s recent investments include Genopets, a move-to-earn NFT game on the Solana blockchain, and reNFT, an NFT rental protocol.
The NFT market skyrocketed to new heights in the third quarter of this year. Furthermore, it generated $13.2 billion in sales within the first nine months of 2021, according to DappRadar. NFTs have crept into just about every industry including sports, entertainment and art. In addition, Siu opines that NFT mainstream adoption is not too far off, offering many lucrative opportunities.
Animoca’s latest funding exercise is one of several carried out by blockchain and NFT-investing platforms in recent times. For instance, gaming studio Concept Art House raised $25 million. Also, venture capitalist Galaxy Interactive generated $325 million for blockchain-gaming investments. In addition, last week, gaming venture capitalist Bitkraft raised $75 million in token funds. Furthermore, two weeks ago, premier blockchain staple Dapper Labs raised $250 million, while Sky Mavis raised $152 million. However, the most notable of all was when fantasy-football platform Sorare raised a whopping $680 million.