Honk Kong-based Web3 gaming giant, Animoca Brands, has raised $20 million in a fresh funding round to accelerate the development of its project “Mocaverse,” including product development, boost Web3 adoption, and secure partnerships to expand its blockchain-based gaming, culture, and entertainment ecosystem.
On September 11, Animoca Brand took to X to announce the funding the company raised in an effort to expand the Mocaverse, its official PFP NFT collection designed to strengthen the company’s ecosystem of Web3 and metaverse-centric projects.
We are pleased to announce that we have raised $20M of funding for @MocaverseNFT. The newly acquired capital will be used to advance the Mocaverse project, including product development, facilitating Web3 adoption, and securing partnerships.
For more:https://t.co/SZ93c7AxdV— Animoca Brands (@animocabrands) September 11, 2023
Mocaverse is designed to form stronger connections between Animoca Brands’ group companies, partners, portfolios, cross-project collaborations, and the various forms of utility found across the Animoca Brands ecosystem.
The funding round was led by CMCC Global, with the participation of investors including Kingsway Capital, Liberty City Ventures and GameFi Ventures. Some business figures such as Aleksander Larsen, co-founder of Sky Mavis, and Gabby Dizon, founder of Yield Guild Games, also contributed to the funding round.
Animoca Brands Rakes in Moolah Despite Crypto Slump
According to the official blog post, the funding was raised through the issuance of new ordinary shares for Mocaverse and as part of the raise, Animoca has granted to the investors in the round a free-attaching utility token warrant on a 1:1 dollar basis.
It will be used to advance Mocaverse, including product development, driving Web3 adoption and securing partnerships to expand the gaming, culture and entertainment ecosystem of Animoca Brands’ portfolio of approximately 450 investments in Web3 companies and projects.
In addition, the gaming giant noted it plans to use the new capital to launch “Moca ID,” a non-transferrable non-fungible token (NFT) collection designed to enable users to craft their on-chain identities and participate in the Mocaverse ecosystem. Moca ID holders will gain access to the Mocaverse ecosystem and will have the opportunity to earn loyalty points.
These loyalty points will power a permissionless and interoperable loyalty system that will be progressively decentralized to enable third-party adoption and integration of Moca ID, to advance the accessibility and growth of Web3.
Yat Siu, Animoca Brand’s co-founder and executive chairman, who also participated in the fundraiser highlighted that Mocaverse will also serve as the digital identity, reputation, and loyalty system for other decentralized organizations. He added,
“The ongoing evolution of the Internet involves a shift from hierarchical power structures to autonomous ones, and the DAO-based approach of Mocaverse ensures that its community will be focused on driving innovation and collaboration across the broader Animoca Brands ecosystem.”
I am excited to announce the next stage of the Mocaverse starting with a $20m investment with our newest straegic partners led by CMCC @Martin_CMCC along with longtime friends and partners @kingswaycapital @gamefiventures @LCVentures @AnimocaVentures @gabusch @Psycheout86 and… https://t.co/ZPuxTSifrQ
— Yat Siu (@ysiu) September 11, 2023
US SEC Creates a Sand-storm
Over the recent past, the Hong Kong-based gaming company has been making steady headlines through its strategic moves to expand the firm’s influence in the dynamic world of Web3 technology.
Recently, Animoca Brands joined forces with Tiger Research, one of the leading Web3 firms in Asia, to bolster business development and marketing initiatives in South Korea’s burgeoning Web3 ecosystem. Moreover, in July, Animoca invested almost $30 million into the Web3 payments application and protocol “hi” to help bring utility to NFTs across its portfolio companies and throughout the Web3 ecosystem.
These developments come shortly after Animoca announced that it is focusing on markets outside the United States, following the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) decision to label its cryptocurrency, “Sand,” the native crypto token used by Animoca’s metaverse platform The Sandbox, as an unregistered security.
