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Deepti Sri · · 10 min readAnimoca’s meteoric rise from zombie to $5b Web3 empire
In March 2020, a lesser-known gaming company delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).
Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands had begun dabbling in the crypto space, but its experiments had drawn scrutiny from the ASX, stunting its growing blockchain-fueled ambitions. The company was soon suspended and eventually had no choice but to exit public markets.
Photo credit: Animoca Brands
But this wasn’t the end of its story. On the contrary, it was the turning of a new page.
Freed from the shackles of stock market regulation, Animoca went on to create a metaverse where people were ready to pay millions of dollars to have Snoop Dogg as their neighbor.
A stunning turnaround
Today, Animoca has evolved into perhaps the most prolific blockchain investment firm in the world, with a metaverse-centric investment portfolio of over 340 projects and firms involved with NFTs. The portfolio was worth US$1.5 billion as of April.
Many of the ventures backed by Animoca have received funding from big-ticket investors like Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank Group. The blockchain gaming unicorn controls a Roblox-like platform called The Sandbox and has stakes in the studios behind hits like Axie Infinity and NBA Top Shot, as well as in the OpenSea NFT marketplace.
The Animoca team / Photo credit: Animoca Brands
Since the beginning of the year, Animoca has been on an acquisition spree, picking up development studios Notre Game, Be Media, Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, and Grease Monkey Games.
Looking at the big picture, Animoca’s “quest” is to establish digital property rights in the open and decentralized metaverse (as opposed to one that’s controlled by a singular entity), Yat Siu, the firm’s co-founder and executive chairman, tells Tech in Asia.
The company is not just targeting gaming and crypto firms. It has also invested in Web3 infrastructure firms such as Polygon, Flow, and Immutable, along with marketplaces like Dapp, Boson Protocol, and Calaxy.
“Digital property rights require a supporting ecosystem – Layer 1 and Layer 2 infrastructure, marketplaces like OpenSea, virtual environments like The Sandbox, which have to exist in concert in order for us to achieve our objectives,” Siu explains.
Tech in Asia spoke to several firms in the blockchain space to analyze Animoca Brands’ investment strategy.
Soft spot for SoftBank
A metaverse nation in the making?
The evolution of a $5b empire
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Animoca wasn’t going anywhere just a few years ago. Then it became a multibillion-dollar crypto investor that’s closing deals at a stunning clip.
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