The value of Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands continues to grow rapidly. Back in the summer, the company was valued at $1 billion. Now, after raising $65 million from 18 investors led by Ubisoft, its total valuation has reached an astronomical $2.2 billion.
The Sandbox
This is reported by Animoca Brands itself.
According to the official press release, Liberty City Ventures, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, Com2uS, Kingsway Capital, 10T Holdings, Token Bay Capital, Smile Group, Tess Ventures, MSA Capital, Octava Fund, Adit Ventures, Summer Capital have also invested in the gaming company that implements NFT in its online gaming projects, Sigitech Holdings, Black Anthem, Mirana Corp and Justin Sun.
It’s funny, but, according to the head of Animoca Brands Yat Siu, the company was not going to hold the current round. “However, some current partners, whom we previously considered as strategic people in the market, wanted to work with us on future potential blockchain games and take part in licensing deals. This led to the round,” explains Yat.
Moreover, some of the new investors did not just purchase shares from Animoca Brands, but bought shares from those who previously owned them. This suggests that, in fact, the participants of the round could have invested much more than the stated $65 million in the company.
If everything is clear with venture firms, then why Ubisoft invested in the company is not completely clear. However, the author of the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry series has been eyeing the market for a long time. Moreover, Ubisoft has its own program for accelerating blockchain products. So, according to Yata, the current step of the French company is a signal.
The amount raised by Animoca Brands will be used to “make strategic investments and purchases, develop products and license high-profile IP“.
By the way, one of the most obvious examples of licensing by Animoca Brands is the appearance in its future online metaverse game The Sandbox of content related to the American rapper Snoop Dogg. The developers promise that the game will feature the singer’s mansion, which can be visited as part of a private online party.
In total, Animoca Brands has already raised $203 million since May of this year. And, given the ongoing investment demand for NFT, it can attract even more by the end of 2021. And she’s not the only one.
As VentureBeat notes, this is not the first major investment in a gaming blockchain team in recent times. Just yesterday, Concept Art House, which decided to enter the NFT market, raised $25 million. Also this week, another $325 million was “raised” by Galaxy Interactive. Earlier this month, the rounds of Bitkraft for $75 million, Sky Mavis for $152 million, Dapper Labs for $250 million, Mythical for $75 million and Sorare, creating a football blockchain game with a team of 30 people, for $680 million, were successfully held.