Hong Kong-based software and venture firm Animoca Brands has secured $358.8 million in capital investments to fuel new acquisitions in the nonfungible token (NFT), gaming and metaverse sectors, further cementing crypto’s biggest trends in 2022.
The funding round was led by Liberty City Ventures
The round was led by Liberty City Ventures, with participation from some of the major blockchain venture funds. Including 10T Holdings, Gemini Frontier Fund, ParaFi Capital, Provident, Sequoia China, and Winklevoss Capital.
Animoca intends to leverage the funds for strategic acquisitions, investments, product development, and license acquisitions, said the company. The company’s objective is to develop a metaverse that uses NFTs to improve consumers’ intellectual property rights. Additionally, this ecosystem will have opportunities inside GameFi. A wide concept that refers to the financialization of gaming through NFTs and DeFi.
According to Animoca, the worldwide video game business is predicted to reach $829 billion in 2028, up from $180.3 billion in 2021, according to industry studies. Play-to-earn games and other kinds of in-game monetization are likely to benefit from the industry’s substantial development.
Animoca raised over $216 million during the course of 2021
In 2021, Animoca raised approximately $216 million, while its subsidiary, The Sandbox, closed a $93 million investment round in early November. With the current fundraising, Animoca solidified its position as one of crypto’s fastest-growing unicorns, with a $5 billion pre-money valuation. That’s more than quadruple its previous valuation of $2.2 billion in October 2021.
Amber Group, Bitso, Blockstream, CoinList, ConsenSys, Figure Technologies, OpenSea are examples of unicorn companies. Companies valued at $1 billion or more.. In addition 2TM are among the crypto-focused startups that have crossed that mark in the last 12 months.
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