Animoca Brands co-leads HK content firm’s $11m raise

Hong Kong-based Gusto Collective, a content production service for brands, has raised US$11 million in a seed funding round led by Animoca Brands and Gaw Capital. This brings the firm’s total funds raised to US$23 million.

Gusto Collective, which calls itself a brandtech firm, merges storytelling, data science, and tech to create interactive content for marketing purposes. It targets augmented reality, metaverse, and NFT innovations to improve customer experiences.

The firm was founded in 2020 by Aaron Lau, who previously worked for marketing agency Cheil Worldwide.

“With the new funding, we intend to move more aggressively into Web3 tech services and expand geographically,” said Lau, adding that the firm is eyeing to grow within Asia. It will also fund its product development efforts.

The company currently has 200 employees with offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and London. 

This round is Animoca’s latest Web3 investment after recently leading gaming firm Untamed Studio’s US$24.3 million raise. It also co-led the US$7.5 million round of Our Happy Company, John Legend’s music NFT firm.

See also: Meet the 50 top-funded startups and tech companies in Hong Kong

Other investors in the round include:

• BlackPine
• YCI Limited
• ClearVue Partner