In brief
Animoca Brands has raised $110 million through a convertible notes sale to institutional investors.
The firm invests in Web3 startups focused on an open, interoperable metaverse, and also publishes its own NFT games.
Animoca Brands, a leading investor in NFT and metaverse-centric startups, today announced that it has raised an additional $110 million in funding in a round led by new institutional investors Temasek, Boyu Capital, and GGV Capital.
According to the Australian firm, the fundraise was conducted as a sale of convertible notes issued at a conversion price of AUD $4.50 (just over US$3.00 at present), although it’s subject to conditions concerning a future potential initial public offering (IPO), liquidation event (such as merger or sale), or equity financing round.
Existing investors Mirae Asset Management and True Global Ventures also took part in the round. Animoca said that the convertible notes sale values the firm “similarly to its previous funding round”—a valuation of $5.9 billion announced in July when Animoca raised $75 million.
According to data from Crunchbase, the firm has now raised a total of $775 million worth of funding across several rounds—including a $359 million raise announced in January that pushed the company above a $5 billion valuation.
“Animoca Brands has grown significantly as a company in the last year, and our new investors will contribute strategic advice and perspective as we build the world’s leading company furthering digital property rights in the Web3 industry,” said co-founder and Executive Chairman Yat Siu in a statement today.
The company has invested in more than 300 startups, per a recent report from Bloomberg, including a number of prominent Web3 and NFT firms that have since hit it big—including NBA Top Shot and Flow blockchain creator Dapper Labs, leading NFT marketplace OpenSea, and Axie Infinity game creator Sky Mavis.
Animoca Brands is particularly focused on firms that are building towards an open, blockchain-centric metaverse, as Siu described to Decrypt last fall. He labeled centralized tech giants like Facebook and Tencent a “threat” to an open metaverse, and said that Animoca was “in a hurry” to help establish interoperable tech to counter that perceived risk.
In addition to investing in various Web3 startups in the gaming space, Animoca Brands also publishes its own games—including the upcoming Ethereum-based metaverse game The Sandbox, which has attracted various celebrity and brand partners. Animoca also recently acquired three additional game studios, with Siu telling Decrypt that it plans to add more.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/109278/web3-investor-animoca-brands-raises-10m-metaverse
