Vision Fund leads $93m Series B for Hong Kong NFT platform
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 has led a $93 million Series B round for Hong Kong non-fungible token (NFT) platform The Sandbox, a subsidiary of locally based category leader Animoca Brands.
This is Vision Fund 2’s first investment in a crypto asset, extending a trend of generalist investors warming up to blockchain-based business models. This includes the rapidly developing NFT niche, which involves digital assets designed to be individually unique rather than interchangeable like cryptocurrencies.
Animoca, a company that combines NFTs, intellectual property (IP), and video games with strong branding, describes Sandbox as a digital world that hosts virtual real estate sales and IP marketing.
This is the metaverse concept that drives much of the NFT opportunity set. The idea is that in immersive virtual environments – often games – individually distinct tokenized items can be associated with recognized brands and sold.
Sandbox has leveraged IP partnerships with the likes of Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Atari, and the Smurfs. Its advisory team includes Nicholas Adler, manager and brand curator of Snoop Dogg, as well as Guy Oseary, founder of the management firm Maverick, whose clients include Madonna and U2.
The company has generated about $144 million in gross merchandise value, while amassing 500,000 users, including 12,000 virtual landowners. It considers this user base a kind of player-owned, play-to-earn crypto economy fostering new jobs such as NFT creator and virtual architect. The goal is to expand beyond gaming into areas such as fashion and virtual concerts.
Additional investors in the round include Liberty City Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Kingsway Capital, Blue Pool Capital, LG Technology Ventures, Alpaca VC, Graticule Asset Management Asia, Sun Hung Kai & Co, Sound Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, SCB 10X, Samsung Next, Double Down Partners, and SterlingVC.
They were joined by crypto specialists True Global Ventures, StakeFish, and HodlCo, as well as gaming sector players Com2uS and Polygon Studios. Animoca, which raised a $65 million round last month featuring Samsung, Liberty City and Kingsway at a valuation of $2.2 billion, also invested.
“We believe The Sandbox is constructing an open metaverse, unlocking new economic opportunities by empowering people to build and monetize their creations, from avatars and buildings to games and collectibles,” Aaron Wong, an investor at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said in a statement.
“Leveraging blockchain technology and decentralized governance, the company is putting the power and control in the hands of its users, resulting in a thriving global community.”
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 was set up in 2019 with $40 million, shifting its parent company’s VC strategy toward smaller, earlier-stage investments. The fund is more than 50% deployed across more than 90 companies.
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