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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.[citation needed]
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.[6]
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.[7]
On 15 August 2018, Animoca Brands raised a $1 million investment from Sun Hung Kai & Co. and $0.5 million from strategic partner Lympo.[8] 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.[9]
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.[10] 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.[11]
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[12] followed in July 2021 by the second tranche of $50 million, both of which were based on valuation of US$1 billion.[13][14] In October 2021 Animoca Brands raised $65 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion from Ubisoft, Sequoia Capital and others.[15][16] In November 2021, SoftBank led a $93 million investment in Animoca Brands' The Sandbox.[17]
In December 2021, Binance and Animoca Brands launched a $200 million investment program to offer funding for blockchain games.[18]
On 15 March 2022, Animoca Brands announced it would shut down the F1 Delta Time game the next day.[19][20] 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.[20][21]
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.[22]
In July 2022, Animoca Brands hit $5.9 billion valuation.[23] 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”.[24][25] In May 2025, Animoca Brands announced his plans to list in New York.[26]
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Notable properties
Notable projects include The Sandbox, and the company has also licensed games and applications for: The Addams Family,[27] Atari,[28] Care Bears,[29] Fan Controlled Football,[30] Formula E,[31] Manchester City FC,[32] MotoGP,[33] Snoop Dogg,[34] Wonder Park,[35] Marvel,[36] Power Rangers,[37] and the WWE.[38] Former licenses include Formula One.[39][20]
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.[40]
In August 2018, the company acquired Pixowl, developer of the video game The Sandbox, for $4.875 million.[41]
In August 2019, Animoca Brands acquired digital collectibles marketplace Quidd for $8 million.[36] In November 2019, the company led a $1.5 million funding round for blockchain game developer Sky Mavis.[42] In December 2019, Animoca Brands acquired Power Rangers game developer nWay for $7.69 million.[37]
In April 2022, Animoca Brands acquired the Lyon-based video game developer, Eden Games.[43] In September 2022, the company acquired MotoGP game developer WePlay Media.[44]
Animoca Brands' has over 450 cryptocurrency as well as non-crypto-related holdings,[45][better source needed] this include Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Yuga Labs, Colossal Biosciences, MoviePass[46][47] and CryptoKitties.[48][49]
References
External links
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