The blockchain-driven gaming giant and venture capital company Animoca Brands has recently announced a $2 billion fund to support middle- and late-stage metaverse startups. The new venture, entitled Animoca Capital, will start operating later in 2023.
The news was announced by Animoca's co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu on November 30th via a tweet. According to the official, the Animoca Capital metaverse fund will focus on digital property rights, striving to confer them with the same powers as the physical ones. Moreover, Siu states that there will be no geographical restrictions for candidates competing for investments. The hefty sum of investment and the fund's focus on IP make Animoca Capital a perfect bridgehead for web3 innovators.
Additionally, according to the co-founder, the venture is meant to reflect web3. “The fund will be focused on equity optimization,” Yat Siu said.
Today, Animoca Brands can be safely called a prime investor in web3 gaming, NFTs, and other blockchain technologies. The company is the biggest shareholder in The Sandbox, alongside over 300 startups in its investment portfolio, headed by the wave-making NBA Top Shot, Dapper Labs, Star Atlas, OpenSea, and many others.
The Hong Kong-based company was once supported by Singapore’s state investment fund Temasek. Since then, Animoca Brands has been funding web3-fuelled businesses and firms to build an open, decentralized metaverse.
In addition to its major investment in The Sandbox metaverse, Animoca has been recently highly focused on NFTs and GameFi ecosystems. The latter, according to Sui, will be the key point for the driving force of metaverse popularization.
For now, no other details on how Animoca Capital is going to operate its $2 billion funds have been announced. But looking at the company's extensive portfolio, abundant in successful investments since its foundation in 2014, the new venture will definitely make some waves in 2023.
