Hong Kong NFT player adds $50m to funding round
Hong Kong’s Animoca Brands, a gaming company focused on blockchain-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has raised $50 million from a group including Gobi Partners and a VC unit of Samsung.
Korea Investment Partners, Blue Pool Capital, and Liberty City Ventures also participated, as did crypto specialists Coinbase Ventures and Token Bay Capital. They were joined by US games developer Scopely and zVentures the VC arm of Hong Kong listed consumer electronics company Razer.
This is the second and final tranche of a $138.9 million round at a pre-money valuation of $1 billion. The first tranche closed in May, bringing together Liberty City, Kingsway Capital, Ellerston Capital, Perennial Value Management, AppWorks Fund, Singaporean family office Octava, and RIT Capital Partners, formerly Rothschild Investment Trust.
The first tranche also featured specialist crypto investors SNZ, HashKey, LCV Fund, Huobi Global, and Metapurse. The funding will be used for strategic investments and acquisitions, product development, and licenses for popular intellectual properties.
Animoca is considered one of the global leaders in NFTs. These assets use blockchain cryptography technology to ensure their uniqueness and irreproducibility. Unlike popular cryptocurrencies, which are interchangeable units that can trade in high volumes, NFTs are envisioned as a way of introducing verifiable ownership to individually distinct virtual items.
Animoca was founded in 2014 by Yat Siu, a pioneer of Hong Kong’s internet start-up scene in the early 2000s. The company originally focused on mobile games and subscription products that feature gamification, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. It has had significant success developing and distributing games, often with titles based on international brands.
The company went public in Australia via a reverse merger with defunct mining player Black Fire Minerals. The Australian Securities Exchange delisted the company last year citing breaches of its rules, including “involvement in cryptocurrency-related activities.” Animoca contested the claims and pledged to continue its usual operations as a private company.
Building an NFT business has always been Animoca’s long-term goal. The company’s initial applications of the concept have focused on purchases made within the context of a game. In time the opportunity set is expected to broaden from in-game objects and rewards to more universally recognized virtual property rights.
“By creating games and worlds around ownership of digital goods, Animoca Brands has introduced a true paradigm shift, placing power with users instead of developers,” Chibo Tang, a managing partner at Gobi, said in a statement. “We're seeing the emergence of a completely new ecosystem – a true metaverse.”
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