- Animoca Brands to Earmark Up to $2B for Web3 in the new year.
- The investment hub was also a top recipient of funding inflows.
- Metaverse growth games, digital ownership and Web3 drew in funding in 2022.
Animoca Brands was one of the big driving engines behind the Web3 boom of 2022. The investment and gaming hub supported some of the top games in 2022, selecting high-quality NFT and gaming projects. Animoca Brands also served as a seal of approval among projects of different risk levels, picking top game studios with strong teams. Animoca Brands invests in multiple types of games and collections, from highly complex to simple loop games that manage to retain users.
Animoca Brands made 240 investments so far, for a total of $804M, with the potential to continue at an even faster pace in 2023. In December, Animoca Brands announced plans for a Metaverse Fund, with the potential to spend up to $2B in the space, for metaverse projects and VR linked to blockchain and gaming.
The plan of Animoca Brands is to attract Web2 investors and focus on growth companies, instead of early stage venues. One of the recent investments included Roboto Games, where Animoca Brands presided over a $15M venture funding round.
Animoca Brands is also the chief investor in The Sandbox, a high-profile metaverse game with 10 years of development. Additional attention is given to high-grade games, including those belonging to the Gala Games family.
Animoca Brands Involvement Hints at Gaming Growth in 2023
The involvement of Animoca Brands is a favorable sign in the P2E sector and Web3, which has seen uncertainty in the past year. As the value of NFT assets slid and gaming tokens lost 90% of their market cap, the focus shifted to top products and venture capital. This is also due to the fact that crowdfunding also slowed down, with lower interest in IDO sales. Launchpad sales and mini-rounds also offer much lower funding to game projects.
Animoca Brands is also on the receiving end of venture capital, wrapping up multiple investment streams into its Web3 portfolio. The focus on Animoca Brands is one of the signals that Web3 will remain a trend in 2023. Inflows into metaverse projects reached $120B in 2022 in total, and the interest in new games, NFT and digital rights ownership is offsetting some of the layoffs in the metaverse space.
