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Animoca Brands
Video game company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd. is a Hong Kong–based game software company and venture capital company co-founded in 2014 by Yat Siu and David Kim. The company initially focused on developing mobile games, then shifted to blockchain gaming and NFTs in 2018.[2]
Animoca Brands was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange from 23 January 2015 to 9 March 2020.[3][4]
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History
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On 15 November 2011, mobile games developer Animoca raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series A round led by Intel Capital and IDG-Accel (which tapped its China Growth Fund III).[5] In 2014 Animoca Brands was spun out from Animoca, and the new entity listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in January 2015.[6]
From January to March 2018, Animoca Brands started rolling out Crazy Kings and its sequel, Crazy Defense Heroes generating US$2.8 million in revenue in the first three months worldwide.[7]
In March 2018, Animoca Brands launched OliveX, a fitness metaverse company building mobile games to gamify the fitness industry, which spun off from the company in August 2020.[8]
On 15 August 2018, Animoca Brands raised a $1 million investment from Sun Hung Kai & Co. and $0.5 million from strategic partner Lympo.[9] On 18 December 2018, Animoca Brands announced that it had completed a $547,000 placement to institutional and sophisticated investors, a portion of which would be applied towards funding its investment in artificial intelligence accelerator Zeroth.ai.[10]
In May 2019, Animoca Brands raised $2.5 million to fund the development of a blockchain version of the 2012 video game The Sandbox. In this new version, players can build and monetize content within the game using SAND, the platform's cryptocurrency.[11] In March 2019, Animoca Brands raised another $2.01 million in cash and cryptocurrency for The Sandbox from investors that included Square Enix and others.[12]
On 9 March 2020, Animoca Brands delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange.[4]
In May 2021 Animoca Brands raised a first tranche of $88,888,888[13] followed in July 2021 by the second tranche of $50 million, both of which were based on valuation of US$1 billion.[14][15] In October 2021 Animoca Brands raised $65 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion from Ubisoft, Sequoia Capital and others.[16][17] In November 2021, SoftBank led a $93 million investment in Animoca Brands' The Sandbox.[18]
In December 2021, Binance and Animoca Brands launched a $200 million investment program to offer funding for blockchain games.[19]
On 15 March 2022, Animoca Brands announced it would shut down the F1 Delta Time game the next day.[20][21] The game had previously been lucrative, holding the record for the most expensive NFT of 2019 and with some transactions exceeding $300,000. Sales within the game had flat-lined for the two years preceding the game's closure. The company announced plans to replace the game's non-functional NFTs with equivalent tokens for REVV Racing, a separate game which doesn't have Formula 1 branding.[21][22]
On 21 June 2022, Animoca Brands Corporation Limited was convicted on charges of failing to lodge annual and half-yearly financial reports with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.[23]
In July 2022, Animoca Brands hit $5.9 billion valuation.[24] In August 2022, Temasek with GGV Capital led a $110 million funding round for Animoca Brands at a $6 billion valuation to make it “pre-IPO ready”.[25][26]
In May 2025, Animoca Brands announced his plans to list in New York.[27] In November 2025 they announced that they plan to go public on the Nasdaq stock exchange through a reverse merger with Currenc Group Inc.. After the transaction, which is expected to close in 2026, Animoca shareholders will own about 95% of the new entity’s issued shares. Those investors include Kingsway Capital, 50T Funds and SoftBank.[28]
On November 28 they began a fundraiser on behalf of the Hong Kong Red Cross to assist victims of the Wang Fuk Court fire, setting up two dedicated crypto wallets for donations from the global crypto community.[29][30]
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Notable properties
Notable projects include The Sandbox, and the company has also licensed games and applications for: The Addams Family,[31] Atari,[32] Care Bears,[33] Fan Controlled Football,[34] Formula E,[35] Manchester City FC,[36] MotoGP,[37] Snoop Dogg,[38] Wonder Park,[39] Marvel,[40] Power Rangers,[41] and the WWE.[42] Former licenses include Formula One.[43][21]
Acquisitions and partnerships
Acquisitions
In July 2016, Animoca Brands acquired TicBits, developer of tower defense games Crazy Kings and Crazy Defense Heroes, for 5.4 million AUD.[44]
In August 2018, the company acquired Pixowl, developer of the video game The Sandbox, for $4.875 million.[45]
In August 2019, Animoca Brands acquired digital collectibles marketplace Quidd for $8 million.[40] In November 2019, the company led a $1.5 million funding round for blockchain game developer Sky Mavis.[46] In December 2019, Animoca Brands acquired Power Rangers game developer nWay for $7.69 million.[41]
In April 2022, Animoca Brands acquired the Lyon-based video game developer, Eden Games.[47] In September 2022, the company acquired MotoGP game developer WePlay Media.[48]
Animoca Brands' holdings and investments include Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Yuga Labs, Colossal Biosciences, MoviePass[49] and CryptoKitties.[50][51]
References
External links
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