Animoca Brands, behind the popular metaverse coin The Sandbox (SAND), has announced plans to raise $1 billion in the first quarter of 2023. Here are the details…
Metaverse coin company can raise $1 billion
According to Bloomberg, Animoca Brands plans to raise approximately $1 billion this quarter for its new Web3 and metaverse mutual fund. Animoca Brands CEO Yat Siu said that Animoca Capital is in talks with potential investors and will use the money to support blockchain and metaverse startups. Yat Siu said, “We can say that we are in a tough market. But we’re getting some interest,” he said. He added that a shaky market could eventually mean slightly lower-than-targeted growth.
ICYMI: here is the recording from today's Spaces on #crypto's future with our co-founder and executive chairman @ysiu, @vladsavov, @pingroma, and @_szheng:#web3 #OpenMetaverse https://t.co/zL5fS5wgfL
— Animoca Brands (@animocabrands) January 5, 2023
In fact, the goal of this fund is to break away from the $2 billion commitment made in November. Animoca’s CEO had previously revealed to Nikkei that the company plans to set up a $2 billion fund. In particular, he collaborated with former Morgan Stanley executive Homer Sun. The aim was to go global while supporting mid to late stage web3 initiatives. The outage was mostly due to the FTX meltdown and losses in the crypto market.
Beyond the overall market decline, nearly a dozen companies in Animoca’s portfolio have faced the brunt of the collapse, according to Yat Siu, co-founder and Chairman of the Board. This includes the starship game Star Atlas, whose treasure is mainly found on FTX. Solana-based Star Atlas game studio previously revealed that the FTX collapse cost it half of its cash holdings.
FTX crash negatively impacted gaming and metaverse
As a result, Siu stated that Animoca Capital is in talks with potential investors and will use the funds to support blockchain and metaverse startups. The manager said that the target for Animoca Capital is the first quarter, while the market will determine the direction. He also agreed that a fragile market could eventually result in slightly lower fundraising goals. Beyond the general negative atmosphere in the industry, there are still problems to be tackled.
Looking at the 2022 funding figures, Animoca Brands continues to be among the best web3 focused projects. The platform announced that Temasek, Boyu Capital and GGVCapital are among the investors who contributed approximately $544 million cumulatively in 2022. He said the funding boosts efforts to create an OpenMetaverse and give internet users access to digital property rights. Additionally, Animoca Brands also had the most metaverse deals in 2022, according to Nasdaq. These deals included support organizations, open metaverse platforms, and web3 game makers. At the moment, cryptocoin.comSAND is changing hands at $0.44, up 0.7 percent, data show.