Animoca Brands Gets IDR 5.17 Trillion To Build Metaverse And NFT

JAKARTA – Game company Metaverse Animoca Brands has raised nearly US$360 million (IDR 5.17 trillion) in a funding round led by Liberty City Ventures, Tuesday, January 18. This new investment brings the company worth more than US$5 billion.

Animoca Brands - an Australian company with headquarters in Hong Kong - invests in and builds a blockchain-based online virtual world, where assets such as land can often be purchased in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFT). They have invested in more than 150 NFT and metaverse-related companies.

In many environments called metaverses, users can buy land, travel as avatars, play games, and meet new friends.

The term became a buzzword in technology and business last year. Metaverse-related companies saw confusion in investments and the metaverse platform crypto token spiked, spurred by Facebook changing its name to “Meta” to signify its commitment to the concept.

Meanwhile, NFT has exploded in popularity, with sales volume approaching 25 billion US dollars by 2021.

The chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, Yat Siu, has been vocal in his view that the development of the “Web3” or metaverse hinges on the ability of users to own blockchain-based assets.

Animoca Brands typically receives around 7.5% of each of its NFT transactions on the main OpenSea marketplace. OpenSea is a major NFT market and has seen around $3 billion in sales volume in the past month, according to market tracker DappRadar.

Animoca Brands issued 111,173,515 shares, worth US$358,888,888, and said it would use the proceeds for acquisitions, investments, product development and to purchase licenses for popular intellectual property.

The fundraiser was led by venture capital firm Liberty City Ventures. Gemini Frontier Fund, Sequoia China and Winklevoss Capital are among other investors.

At a shareholder meeting last month, it was announced that Siu would hold about a 7.3% stake in Animoca Brands following the latest funding round, the company said.

"Animoca Brands has built and developed leading brands in the gaming space and the decentralized metaverse," said Tyler Winklevoss, founder of Winklevoss Capital and Gemini, as quoted by Reuters. "We have tremendous faith in his vision and are excited to support his mission."

The company has reserves of digital assets, such as crypto tokens, worth US$15.9 billion at the end of November 2021, up from US$2.9 billion at the end of September 2021, according to its unaudited financial statements. Animoca Brands is rumored to have raised $216 million in 2021.

In November, SoftBank led a $93 million funding round in Animoca Brands subsidiary The Sandbox. The Sandbox token, "SAND", has gained more than 8,500% in the last year, according to Coinbase.