Animoca Brands Secures $88,888,888 At $1B Valuation

? Corporate fundraising 

• Hong-Kong-based blockchain and NFT gaming company Animoca Brands (ASX : AB1) has secured a $88,888,888 investment at $1B valuation, issuing 93.4m shares at a price of $0.85 each
• The investors of the round include Kingsway Capital, RIT Capital Partners, HashKey Fintech Investment Fund, AppWorks Fund, LCV Fund, Huobi, and Metapurse 
• The company will use the proceeds for acquisitions, increasing the company headcount, expanding IP licensing portfolio, and “further aggressive growth”

? Product

• The company has developed F1 Delta Time and The Sandbox, which are its 2 primary blockchain NFT gaming titles that allow users to purchase or sell virtual commodities to others
• There are also several competitive mobile fighting F2P games that are intended to be monetized via NFTs: WWE Undefeated, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, and Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid 
• However, some games of the company have more traditional monetization systems and don’t support NFTs: MasterChef: Dream Plate, Addams Family Mystery Mansion, Peanuts: Snoopy’s Town Tale, and others
• Animoca Brands issues its own tokens that serve as in-game currencies and may be listed by crypto exchange platforms. Additionally, the company invests in blockchain startups, such as OpenSea, Sky Mavis, and Dapper Labs, the maker of CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot
• According to AppMagic, the total number of the company’s applications’ downloads exceeds 180m, peaking in January 2019 due to Benji Bananas success (1.6m downloads)

? Previous Deals

• In July 2020 the company raised $4.1m in a funding round that included M7 Asia, Mind Fund, and other investors. The funds provided for working capital increase and allowed to support the then-planned IPO
• On June 5, 2020, the company has finalized a sale of its mobile games library of 318 titles to iCandy Interactive for $5m, receiving a total of 30.2m of iCandy shares and increasing its stake in the company from 7.9% to 15.5%
• Since its first IPO, the company has raised more than $30m in several post-IPO equity rounds from such investors as Altari, Hashed, M7 Asia, Mind Fund, and others

? Previous gaming-related M&As

• In July 2020, Animoca Brands has completed the acquisition of 100% of nWay, a game developer and publisher of high-quality AAA games on console, PC, and mobile platforms, for $7.7m. The studio is known for its F2P tower defense games, including Crazy Defense Heroes and Crazy King. Currently, the company works on these games to implement the NFT monetization system
• In July 2020, Animoca Brands has acquired 100% shares of social casual gaming platform GAMEE for a total consideration of $8.2m payable in Animoca shares ($6.5m) and earn-out ($1.6m) in cash or shares payments.  The platform has over 13m registered users and 4 billion gameplay sessions, averaging each user to play 25 minutes a day

? Financial highlights

• Total unaudited sales and revenue earned in advance are approximately $38m for the TTM ending October 31, 2020
• Net unaudited operating cash flow equals approximately $2.3m for the TTM ended October 31, 2020
• As a result of the pandemic’s global impact, Animoca Brands’ business has grown, having secured record quarterly and monthly revenues as well as record unaudited revenue for 2020

?  New trends of the industry

• Over the past week, there has been a surge in interest in blockchain-powered products and NFT games
  
  • US-based decentralized art-dedicated NFT marketplace developer Wilder World has raised $3m in a funding round led by Spartan Group and joined by blockchain investors including DCG, Animoca Brands, Republic Realm, and Signum Capital
  • Vietnam-based startup Sky Mavis that develops a blockchain-based fighting game called Axie Infinity has secured $7.5m during its Series A, led by Libertus Capital and joined by recurrent investors such as Animoca Brands, Hashed, Pangea Blockchain Fund, Consensys, and 500 Startups Vietnam. The funds will be used to speed up the development. Previously, the company has raised $1.5m in November 2019 during its seed round
  • US-based game studio Big Time Studios has raised $21.3 million during a round joined by FBG Capital, North Island Ventures, Digital Currency Group, OKEx Blockdream Ventures, Alameda Research, and others. The studio currently has one PC action RPG Big Time title in development. It intends to use the round proceeds to bring NFTs to the gaming economies
• We clearly observe more funds being allocated to NFT-based gaming startups. On March 30, 2021 Canada-based blockchain company Dapper Labs closed the biggest NFT-related $305m funding round led by Coatue Management and joined by a16z, The Chernin Group, USV, Version One, Venrock venture funds, and both former and current NBA players. The investment will be used to scale up the company’s virtual NBA trading card site

Source: PRESS RELEASE

Written by Andrei Zubov and Vladimir Seleverstov

Read more

22 September 2020

Playco Has Raised $100m At $1B Valuation In Series A Round

? Corporate fundraising  Hong-Kong-based blockchain and NFT gaming company Animoca Brands (ASX : AB1) has secured a $88,888,888 ...

READ MORE

EARLY VENTURE

15 September 2020

Dream Sports Raises $225m At $2.5B+ Valuation With Future M&...

? Corporate fundraising  Hong-Kong-based blockchain and NFT gaming company Animoca Brands (ASX : AB1) has secured a $88,888,888 ...

READ MORE

LATER VENTURE