Major non-fungible token (NFT)-focused company Animoca Brands said reached a valuation of USD 5bn after completing a USD 359m investment round.
The latest investment round for Animoca Brands was led by Liberty City Ventures, with participation from a range of other investors including 10T Holdings, C Ventures, Delta Fund, Gemini Frontier Fund, and many others.
Soros Fund Management and Winklevoss Capital, founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the chief executive officer and the president of Gemini Trust Co., are also among the investors.
According to Animoca Brands, the newly raised capital will be used for continued strategic acquisitions and investments, as well as product development, and intellectual property licenses.
The company said that it aims to continue its work to “build the open metaverse,” adding that this will be done by bringing digital property rights to users through blockchain technology and NFTs. This opens up possibilities for decentralized finance (DeFi) and GameFi (gaming + DeFi), asset interoperability, and “an open framework that can lead to greater equitability for all participants,” the firm wrote.
This capital raise comes after the firm last year raised a total of USD 216.28m from investors, the announcement said.
“In 2021 we saw tremendous growth in this space and Animoca Brands has been one of the forefront leaders in the development of this industry. We believe we are still at the initial stages of a new Internet revolution, and there are tremendous opportunities ahead of us in 2022 and beyond,” Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said in a comment.
A major company in the NFT and crypto gaming space, known for having developed projects like The Sandbox (SAND), Animoca Brands has a portfolio of more than 150 investments in various NFT-related companies and decentralized projects, according to its website. Among the projects the company is invested in is play-to-earn game Axie Infinity (AXS), the NFT marketplace OpenSea and crypto game developer Dapper Labs.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, the Animoca-owned sports-focused NFT developer Lympo (LMT) made headlines after hackers stole LMT 165.2m (worth around USD 16.5m before the hack) from its operational hot wallet, leading to a collapse in the market price of LMT tokens.
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