Animoca Brands
![]() | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (February 2022) |
Type | Limited company |
---|---|
Industry | Video games, venture capital, blockchain |
Founded | 2014[1] |
Founders | Yat Siu |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Robby Yung, Yat Siu |
Products | The Sandbox, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, Projection: First Light, Beast Quest Ultimate Heroes, Crazy Defense Heroes |
Revenue | 573 M (Jan-April 2022)[2] |
Website | animocabrands.com |
Animoca Brands (Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd) is a Hong Kong-based game software company and venture capital company founded in 2014 by Yat Siu.
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' has over 380 cryptocurrency-related holdings, this include Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs[17][18] and CryptoKitties.[19] Animocas portfolio investments is worth $1.5 billion in crypto and blockchain gaming across 380 companies.[20][21]
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).[22] In 2014 Animoca Brands was spun out from Animoca, and the new entity listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in January 2015.[23]
In March 2018, Animoca Brands launched OliveX which builds mobile games to gamify the fitness industry.[24]
On 15 August 2018, Animoca Brands raised a $1 million investment from Sun Hung Kai and $0.5 million from strategic partner Lympo.[25] 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.[26]
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.[27] 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.[28]
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.[29]
In May 2021 Animoca Brands raised a first tranche of US$88,888,888[30] followed in July 2021 by the second tranche of US$50 million, both of which were based on valuation of US$1 billion.[31][32][33] In October 2021 Animoca Brands raised $65 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion from Ubisoft, Sequoia Capital and others.[34][35] In November 2021 SoftBank led a $93 million investment in Animoca Brands' The Sandbox.[36]
In December 2021, Binance and Animoca Brands launched a $200 million investment program to offer funding for blockchain games.[37]
On March 15, 2022, Animoca Brands announced it would shut down the F1 Delta Time game the next day.[38][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][39]
In April 2022, Animoca Brands acquired the Lyon-based video game developer, Eden Games.[40]
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.[41]
In July 2022, Animoca Brands hits $5.9 billion valuation.[42] In August 2022 Temasek with GGV Capital lead a $110 million funding round for Animoca Brands at a $6 billion valuation to make it “pre-IPO ready”.[43][44][45][46][47]
References
- ^ "Animoca Brands: Revolutionizing the branded mobile gaming industry".
- ^ "Animoca Brands investor update for the period ended on 30 April 2022". animocabrands.com.
- ^ "Hong Kong-based mobile gaming company Animoca Brands to list on the Australian stock market (ASX)". EntrepreneurHK. January 28, 2015.
- ^ a b Newell, Elisha (March 10, 2020). "Animoca Brands (ASX:AB1) delisted from ASX". The Market Herald.
- ^ Nelson, Jared. "'The Addams Family Mystery Mansion' is an Upcoming Mobile Game Based on the Upcoming Addams Family Animated Movie". TouchArcade.
- ^ Tsagkarakis, George (August 7, 2020). "ATARI VCS to be The First Console to Support Blockchain Games". egamers.io.
- ^ "Care Bears Take On 'The Sandbox'". License Global. September 3, 2020.
- ^ "Fan Controlled Football raises $40M for spectator-controlled football games". January 12, 2022.
- ^ "Introducing Formula E: High Voltage".
- ^ "Animoca Brands team up with City and Melbourne City".
- ^ "Animoca Brands to develop MotoGP™ blockchain Manager game". MotoGP.
- ^ Hake, Mark (November 11, 2021). "7 Interesting Metaverse Cryptos That Might Be Worthwhile Tokens". Nasdaq.
- ^ George, Tharun (March 15, 2019). "Animoca Brands launches new mobile game based on Wonder Park film". Proactive Investors.
- ^ Powell, John. "Animoca, nWay sign deal with WWE". Slam Wrestling.
- ^ Cook, Oliver (March 29, 2019). "Formula 1 blockchain game 'F1 Delta Time' in development by Animoca Brands". AYO.news.
- ^ a b c Plunkett, Luke (April 4, 2022). "Official Formula 1 NFT Game Shuts Down, Tokens Are Now Practically Worthless". Kotaku. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
- ^ "Crypto Firm Animoca Locks in More Funding Even After KKR Backs off". Bloomberg.com. July 12, 2022.
- ^ Finzer, Devin (November 9, 2019). "Bringing on additional strategic investors to OpenSea". OpenSea. OpenSea. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
- ^ Miller, John (January 29, 2018). "Animoca Brands one of the ASX top performers in 2018". Proactive Investors. Retrieved October 7, 2018.
- ^ "Animoca Brands holds $1.5B in crypto and blockchain gaming assets across 340 investments". June 6, 2022.
- ^ "Animoca Brands appoints Jared Shaw as chief financial officer and other senior appointments".
- ^ "Mobile Games Publisher Animoca Raises Funding From Intel, IDG-Accel". Techcrunch. November 15, 2011.
- ^ "Animoca Brands Revolutionizing the branded mobile gaming industry". The Silicon Review. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
- ^ Lee, Zinnia. "Fitness Metaverse: This Tech Company Trades Sweat For Crypto And NFTs". Forbes. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
- ^ Tharun, George (August 15, 2018). "Animoca Brands secures investment from renowned Asian financial powerhouse". Proactive.
- ^ Abudheen K, Sainul (December 18, 2017). "Animoca Brands to invest US$766K in Artificial Intelligence accelerator Zeroth.ai". e27.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (May 22, 2019). "Animoca Brands raises $2.5 million for The Sandbox blockchain gaming platform". VentureBeat. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (March 19, 2020). "The Sandbox raises $2 million more to build out blockchain-based game world". VentureBeat. Retrieved December 5, 2021.
- ^ Sharma, Deepak (August 26, 2021). "Animoca Brands to list REVV token on OKEx". Proactive.
- ^ Chan, Michelle (May 13, 2021). "Hong Kong blockchain gaming group Animoca Brands claims unicorn status". Nikkei Asia.
- ^ Sinclair, Sebastian (July 1, 2021). "Animoca Completes Funding Round, Gets an Extra $50M From Coinbase, Samsung". Nasdaq.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (May 13, 2021). "Animoca Brands raises $88 million at $1 billion valuation to capitalize on game NFTs". VentureBeat.
- ^ "Animoca Brands completes US$138.88m capital raise with second tranche of US$50m" (Press release).
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (October 20, 2021). "Animoca Brands raises $65M at $2.2B valuation from Ubisoft and others". VentureBeat.
- ^ Macdonald, Anthony (October 20, 2021). "ASX pariah Animoca Brands worth $2.9b, Sequoia China buys in". The Australian Financial Review.
- ^ Hu, Krystal (November 2, 2021). "SoftBank leads $93 MLN investment in NFT gaming firm the Sandbox". Reuters.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (December 2, 2021). "Binance Smart Chain and Animoca Brands launch $200M investment program for blockchain games". VentureBeat.
- ^ "F1 Delta Time to cease operations; announces rewards for supporters". Medium (Press release). March 15, 2022. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
- ^ Lane, Rick (April 5, 2022). "F1 Delta Time, one of the first major NFT games, has shut down". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 11, 2022.
- ^ Sinclair, Brendan. "Eden Games acquired by blockchain company". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
- ^ "22-168MR Animoca Brands Corporation Limited convicted and fined for failing to lodge financial reports". asic.gov.au. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
- ^ "Animoca Brands Hits $5.9 Billion Valuation as Crypto Winter Deepens". Forbes.
- ^ "With Temasek investing in web3's Animoca, are institutions ready for a rodeo ride?". August 30, 2022.
- ^ "Temasek to Lead $100 Million Funding for Crypto Landlord Animoca". Bloomberg.com. August 30, 2022.
- ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem".
- ^ "Animoca Brands Raises $110 Million from Temasek, GGV and Boyu Capital as It Mulls Possible IPO". Forbes.
- ^ Yong, Yimie (October 19, 2022). "BEYOND Expo | Blockchain gaming company Animoca says Web3 space can overturn tech giants' dominance". TechNode Global. Retrieved October 19, 2022.