Animoca Brands, a game software and venture capital company based in Hong Kong is seeking to raise $1 billion in funding for its new Web3 and metaverse mutual fund in the first quarter of 2022.
The Chairman and Co-founder of the Animoca brands, Yat Siu, stated in a Bloomberg interview on Twitter Spaces that the venture capital firm is already in talks with prospective investors. He highlighted that the firm plans to use the funds raised to assist blockchain and metaverse start-ups.
LIVE: What does the future have in store for crypto?
Animoca's Chair @ysiu joins us to discuss centralization, asset safety and the company's billion-dollar metaverse fund@vladsavov @pingroma @_szheng
Tune in: https://t.co/jEfn7W2Fbi
— Bloomberg Asia (@BloombergAsia) January 5, 2023
Siu stated that Animoca Capital had previously targeted to raise $2 billion for the new funding in the first quarter, but the unstable crypto market, as well as the collapse and bankruptcy filing by the insolvent FTX exchange, which made fundraising difficult, caused the new target to be reduced.
The Chairman is, however, optimistic that the investments in crypto will still yield interest in the future. He added that several subsidiaries of Sequoia-backed Animoca successfully raised cash during the FTX debacle without disclosing names or ratings.
Meanwhile, Matter Labs, a Web3 company, has also raised $200 million through its Series C funding round in the face of the FTX insolvency crisis, establishing the fact that the crypto industry is still promising.
The Animoca Brands has over 380 investments in its portfolio, which includes Colossal, Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others.
Opinions of Yat Siu Concerning the Metaverse
Animoca Brands has been recognized as an innovator within the Web3 ecosystem, which is built on the distributed ledger technology pioneered by Bitcoin and Ethereum, since its inception in 2014.
While speaking at the Future Blockchain Summit, Yat Siu stated that the metaverse is not a centralized entity and that it will undoubtedly spark the emergence of new economies that will benefit its users.
The veteran contends that the introduction of Web3 will create a balanced economy in which all ecosystem participants will be appropriately rewarded for their roles and contributions to the industry. This would also introduce users to the concept of digital ownership.
Siu stated that big tech corporations like Google, Facebook, and Apple control more than half of what is generated in the industry, leaving game developers and players with crumbs. He went on to say that this model leads to an unhealthy ecosystem.
