Animoca Brands, a leading investor in NFT and metaverse-centric startups, announced today an additional $110 million in funding led by new institutional investors Temasek, Boyu Capital, and GGV Capital.
According to the Australian firm, the fundraising was conducted as a sale of convertible notes issued at a conversion price of AUD $4.50 (just over US$3.00 at the time). However, it is subject to conditions regarding a future potential initial public offering (IPO), liquidation event (such as merger or sale), or equity financing round.
Mirae Asset Management and True Global Ventures, both existing investors, also participated in the round. Animoca stated that the convertible note sale values the company “similarly to its previous funding round,” which was announced in July when Animoca raised $75 million.
Animoca has raised over $775 million in funding across several rounds
According to Crunchbase data, the company has now raised a total of $775 million in funding across several rounds, including a $359 million raise announced in January that pushed the company’s valuation above $5 billion.
“Animoca Brands has grown significantly 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,” co-founder and Executive Chairman Yat Siu said in a statement.
According to a recent Bloomberg report, the company has invested in over 300 startups, including several prominent Web3 and NFT firms that have since gone public, such as NBA Top Shot and Flow blockchain creator Dapper Labs, leading NFT marketplace OpenSea, and Axie Infinity game creator Sky Mavis.
Animoca Brands is particularly interested in companies working to create an open, blockchain-centric metaverse, as Siu explained to Decrypt last fall. He called centralized tech behemoths like Facebook and Tencent a “threat” to an open metaverse and said Animoca was “hurrying” to help establish interoperable tech to mitigate that perceived risk.
Animoca Brands, in addition to investing in various Web3 startups in the gaming space, also publishes its games, such as the upcoming Ethereum-based metaverse game The Sandbox, which has attracted several celebrity and brand partners. Animoca has also recently acquired three more game studios, with Siu telling Decrypt that more are on the way.
