Animoca Brands raises $110m from Temasek, GGV and Boyu Capital as it eyes potential IPO

Animoca brandsthe Hong Kong-based blockchain game developer and prominent investor in crypto projects, has bagged $110 million in funding by issuing convertible notes as the company prepares the ground for a possible initial public offering.

The latest funding round is being led by Singaporean public investment firm Temasek, as well as US venture capital firm GGV Capital and Chinese private equity firm Boyu Capital, according to a company statement on Thursday. Other participants include existing investors Mirae Asset Management and True Global Ventures. Animoca Brands’ valuation remains at around $5.9 billion, he said.

“We are extremely pleased to complete a special strategic fundraising round featuring many of the world’s most respected institutional investors,” said Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Chairman of Animoca Brands. “Our new investors will bring strategic advice and perspective as we build the world’s first company to promote digital property rights in the Web3 industry.”

Temasek, GGV and Boyu Capital will engage and advise Animoca Brands on a range of business issues, in particular on the organization, processes and governance that enable it to become “pre-IPO ready”, the blockchain gaming company said. But Animoca Brands added that it did not specify the deadline or the domicile of the registration. He was delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange in March 2020 for breaching the listing rules of the exchange.

The capital will be used to continue to fund strategic acquisitions, investments, product development, secure licensing of intellectual properties, and expansion into the open metaverse.

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When Animoca Brands was established in 2014, it focused primarily on developing games for smartphones and tablets. But starting around 2017, it started venturing into blockchain games that allow players to own and trade in-game assets in the form of NFTs. In April this year, Animoca Brands said its investment portfolio had grown to more than 340 crypto-related companies and projects.

Animoca Brands has been able to attract a slew of big-name investors looking to partner with its efforts to grow the open metaverse. Less than two months ago, Animoca Brands pocketed $75 million in a funding round that valued it at $5.9 billion despite the continued downturn in the crypto market. The company’s long list of investors includes billionaire George Soros’ Soros Fund Management, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss’ Gemini Frontier Fund, Sequoia China and many others.

“The reality is that companies like us and in the ecosystem we are building, we are still the minority,” Siu said in a virtual panel at GAME ON Hong Kong! Conference 2022 on Thursday, pointing to tech giants like Facebook also venturing into Web3. “We are the Davids and they are the Goliath. And so we have to be absolutely aware of that, which means we have to keep investing…keep acquiring businesses and moving them to Web3.