Animoca leads $3m round in Japanese gaming company

Photo credit: Gacha Monsters

Gacha Monsters, a Japan-based entertainment and gaming startup, has raised US$3 million in a seed round led by Animoca Brands. Other investors include Infinity Ventures Crypto, FBG, and Big Time Games.

The startup is led by Jia Shen, a game developer who previously worked on titles such as Pokémon Medallion and Battle Cats as well as the international version of Disney Tsum Tsum. It will use the funds to create and distribute intellectual properties (IPs) across various formats, such as video games, anime, comics, physical merchandise, and Web3.

Gacha Monsters’ first self-developed property is Poglin, which features a world filled with different creatures with unique abilities. It aims to launch the alpha version of a Poglin game in the first quarter of 2024.

Ultimately, the company plans to turn Poglin into a multimedia IP spanning anime, games, Web3, and physical merchandise.

Gacha Monsters says it will soon announce its partnership with a “renowned” but unnamed Japanese IP. The company did not provide further information.

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This isn’t Animoca Brands’ first investment of the year. After announcing a new US$1 billion fund focused on Web3 and the metaverse, it led the seed round of Nuqtah, a Saudi Arabia-based NFT marketplace, and committed US$30 million into Hi, a Hong Kong crypto firm.