Animoca Brands Raises $110M From Temasek, Boyu and CGV
- Animoca Brands has secured a $110 million funding round, backed by major industry players including Boyu Capital, Temasek, and CGV Capital.
- The strategic association of the new investors will “provide advice to the Company as it continues to grow and build its organizational capabilities.”
On Thursday, Hong Kong-based game software and venture capital company Animoca Brands recently announced that it has secured a $110 million funding round, backed by major industry players including Boyu Capital, Temasek, and CGV Capital.
According to the official announcement, the strategic association of the new investors will “provide advice to the Company as it continues to grow and build its organizational capabilities.” This includes interacting with the company, giving it advice on a variety of business-related matters, and contributing ideas to its business and capital plans.
The capital raise takes the form of a convertible note issuance that might or might not eventually be converted into equity. When a company cannot raise equity capital or does not want to dilute its own shares, it may adopt this fundraising strategy. According to Animoca Brands, the notes have a three-year maturity date from the date of issuance and may be converted at any time prior to that date at the noteholder’s election.
Animoca stated that it will use the additional funding to support strategic acquisitions, investments, and product development in addition to securing licensing for well-known intellectual properties. It also aims to advance the “open metaverse,” along with boosting its efforts to support online users’ digital property rights. Yat Siu, the co-founder and executive chairman of the gaming company commented on the new funding by stating:
“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.”
2014-founded Animoca Brands has established itself as a major player in the cryptocurrency gaming and NFT industries by pioneering and innovating decentralized in-game rewards and monetization in video games for the booming open metaverse. With more than 150 investments in NFT and metaverse-related businesses, including OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Yield Guild Games, and Axie Infinity, it seems like Yat Siu’s company has refused to be affected by any crypto market conditions.
Amid the crypto winter season, the latest round adds to an earlier fundraise announced in January, when Animoca secured $359 million. Moreover, the company contributed to a fundraise of $75 million in July, raising its valuation to roughly $6 billion.
The latest $110 million brings Animoca Brands’ total funding to date over the $600 million mark. Separately, its metaverse division, The Sandbox, has also recently raised $93 million.