Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands (Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd) is a Hong Kong-based game software company and venture capital company founded 2014 by Yat Siu.

Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd
TypeLimited company
IndustryVideo games, venture capital, blockchain
Founded2014[1]
FoundersYat Siu
Headquarters
Cyberport, Telegraph Bay
,
Hong Kong
Key people
Robby Yung, Yat Siu
ProductsThe Sandbox, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, F1® Delta Time, Beast Quest Ultimate Heroes, Crazy Defense Heroes
Revenue669.6M (Jan-Sept. 2021)[2]
Websiteanimocabrands.com

It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange from 23 January 2015 to 9 March 2020.[3][4]

Notable properties

Games owned by the company include:

Animoca Brands has also licensed games and applications for: The Addams Family,[5] Atari,[6] Care Bears,[7] Fan Controlled Football,[8] Formula E,[9] Manchester City FC,[10] MotoGP,[11] Snoop Dogg,[12] Wonder Park,[13] and the WWE.[14] Former licenses include Formula One.[15][16]

Animoca Brands' cryptocurrency-related holdings include OpenSea,[17] and CryptoKitties.[18]

History

On November 15, 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).[19] In 2014 Animoca Brands was spun out from Animoca, and the new entity listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in January 2015.[20]

On 15 August 2018, Animoca Brands raised a $1 million investment from Sun Hung Kai and $0.5 million from strategic partner Lympo.[21] On 18 December 2018, Animoca Brands announced that it had completed a US$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.[22]

In May 2019, Animoca Brands raised $2.5 million to fund the development of a blockchain version of the video game The Sandbox based on user-generated content.[23] Then, in March 2019, Animoca Brands raised another $2.01 million in cash and cryptocurrency for The Sandbox from investors that included Square Enix, B Cryptos, and True Global Ventures.[24]

On 9 March 2020 Animoca Brands delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange.[4]

In September 2020 Animoca Brands launched the blockchain racing ERC-20 utility token "REVV" on Uniswap, which was subsequently listed on various other exchanges.[25]

In May 2021 Animoca Brands raised a first tranche of US$88,888,888[26] followed in July 2021 by a second tranche of US$50 million, both of which were based on valuation of US$1 billion.[27][28][29] In October 2021 Animoca Brands raised $65 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion from Ubisoft, Sequoia Capital and others.[30][31] In November 2021 SoftBank led a $93 million investment in Animoca Brands' The Sandbox.[32]

In December 2021 Binance and Animoca Brands launched a $200 million investment program to offer funding for blockchain games.[33]

On March 15, 2022, Animoca Brands announced it would shut down the F1 Delta Time game the next day.[34][16] The game had previously been lucrative, holding the record for most expensive NFT of 2019 and with some transactions exceeding US$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.[16][35]

In April 2022, Animoca Brands acquired the Lyon-based video game developer, Eden Games.[36]

References
  1. "Animoca Brands: Revolutionizing the branded mobile gaming industry".
  2. "Metaverse player Animoca Brands releases unaudited numbers". Australian Financial Review. December 8, 2021.
  3. "Hong Kong-based mobile gaming company Animoca Brands to list on the Australian stock market (ASX)". EntrepreneurHK. January 28, 2015.
  4. Newell, Elisha (March 10, 2020). "Animoca Brands (ASX:AB1) delisted from ASX". The Market Herald.
  5. Nelson, Jared. "'The Addams Family Mystery Mansion' is an Upcoming Mobile Game Based on the Upcoming Addams Family Animated Movie". TouchArcade.
  6. Tsagkarakis, George (August 7, 2020). "ATARI VCS to be The First Console to Support Blockchain Games". egamers.io.
  7. "Care Bears Take On 'The Sandbox'". License Global. September 3, 2020.
  8. "Fan Controlled Football raises $40M for spectator-controlled football games". January 12, 2022.
  9. "Introducing Formula E: High Voltage".
  10. "Animoca Brands team up with City and Melbourne City".
  11. "Animoca Brands to develop MotoGP™ blockchain Manager game". MotoGP.
  12. Hake, Mark (November 11, 2021). "7 Interesting Metaverse Cryptos That Might Be Worthwhile Tokens". Nasdaq.
  13. George, Tharun (March 15, 2019). "Animoca Brands launches new mobile game based on Wonder Park film". Proactive Investors.
  14. Powell, John. "Animoca, nWay sign deal with WWE". Slam Wrestling.
  15. Cook, Oliver (March 29, 2019). "Formula 1 blockchain game 'F1 Delta Time' in development by Animoca Brands". AYO.news.
  16. Plunkett, Luke (April 4, 2022). "Official Formula 1 NFT Game Shuts Down, Tokens Are Now Practically Worthless". Kotaku. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
  17. Finzer, Devin (November 9, 2019). "Bringing on additional strategic investors to OpenSea". OpenSea. OpenSea. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  18. Miller, John (January 29, 2018). "Animoca Brands one of the ASX top performers in 2018". Proactive Investors. Retrieved October 7, 2018.
  19. "Mobile Games Publisher Animoca Raises Funding From Intel, IDG-Accel". Techcrunch. November 15, 2011.
  20. "Animoca Brands Revolutionizing the branded mobile gaming industry". The Silicon Review. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  21. Tharun, George (August 15, 2018). "Animoca Brands secures investment from renowned Asian financial powerhouse". Proactive.
  22. Abudheen K, Sainul (December 18, 2017). "Animoca Brands to invest US$766K in Artificial Intelligence accelerator Zeroth.ai". e27.
  23. Takahashi, Dean (May 22, 2019). "Animoca Brands raises $2.5 million for The Sandbox blockchain gaming platform". VentureBeat. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  24. Takahashi, Dean (March 19, 2020). "The Sandbox raises $2 million more to build out blockchain-based game world". VentureBeat. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
  25. Sharma, Deepak (August 26, 2021). "Animoca Brands to list REVV token on OKEx". Proactive.
  26. Chan, Michelle (May 13, 2021). "Hong Kong blockchain gaming group Animoca Brands claims unicorn status". Nikkei Asia.
  27. Sinclair, Sebastian (July 1, 2021). "Animoca Completes Funding Round, Gets an Extra $50M From Coinbase, Samsung". Nasdaq.
  28. Takahashi, Dean (May 13, 2021). "Animoca Brands raises $88 million at $1 billion valuation to capitalize on game NFTs". VentureBeat.
  29. "Animoca Brands completes US$138.88m capital raise with second tranche of US$50m" (Press release).
  30. Takahashi, Dean (October 20, 2021). "Animoca Brands raises $65M at $2.2B valuation from Ubisoft and others". VentureBeat.
  31. Macdonald, Anthony (October 20, 2021). "ASX pariah Animoca Brands worth $2.9b, Sequoia China buys in". The Australian Financial Review.
  32. Hu, Krystal (November 2, 2021). "SoftBank leads $93 MLN investment in NFT gaming firm the Sandbox". Reuters.
  33. Takahashi, Dean (December 2, 2021). "Binance Smart Chain and Animoca Brands launch $200M investment program for blockchain games". VentureBeat.
  34. "F1 Delta Time to cease operations; announces rewards for supporters". Medium (Press release). March 15, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  35. Lane, Rick (April 5, 2022). "F1 Delta Time, one of the first major NFT games, has shut down". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
  36. Sinclair, Brendan. "Eden Games acquired by blockchain company". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
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