Animoca Brands raises US$10m to advance flagship Mocaverse Web3 platform

Animoca Brands raises additional US$10 million for its flagship Mocaverse project
Investors include OKX Ventures, CMCC Global, HongShan, Republic Crypto, Decima Fund, Kingsway Capital, and others
The latest capital raise is set to fast track and scale the project’s operations
Follows US$31.88m raised last year to build out tech stack
‘Esteemed’ and strategically important investors participated

Special Report: Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands has announced an additional tranche of US$10m funding to advance its flagship Mocaverse web3 platform.

The latest investment follows previous investments totalling US$31.88m announced last year for Mocaverse, established to leverage Animoca Brands’ expansive ecosystem of subsidiaries, projects, portfolio companies, and partners.

Animoca Brands’ objective for the Mocaverse is to build the largest web3 gaming/metaverse publishing platform.

Put simply, the idea is for participants to be able to access web3 games and take part in other on-chain activities to earn Realm Points and incentives provided by partners.

Read Stockhead’s recent interview with Animoca Brands founder Yat Siu to learn more about the Mocaverse and how it could literally change the game(s) >

‘Reputation is currency’: Animoca Brands’ Yat Siu on the future of our digital identities

Animoca Brands said the capital raise involved issuing simple agreements for future equity (SAFEs) with various sophisticated and professional investors to raise US$10m (~A$15.4m) at A$4.50 per share.

The SAFEs will be converted to ordinary shares after six months. The company said the number of new shares to be issued would be determined by the Australian-US exchange rate at the time of settlement.

Animoca Brands’ number of current outstanding fully paid ordinary shares is 1,923,933,217.

As part of the raise, the company has granted participating investors a free-attaching utility token warrant on a 1:1 dollar basis with a 30-month vesting schedule, priced at US$0.113 per token based on a fully diluted value (FDV) for MOCA Coin of US$1bn.

OKX Ventures, CMCC Global, HongShan (formerly Sequoia China), Republic Crypto, Decima Fund, Kingsway Capital and others participated in the latest funding tranche.

Funding to fast-track and scale Mocaverse operations

Animoca Brands said the latest capital raise would fast track and scale the Mocaverse operations with the aim of boosting the project’s already considerable growth since its initial fundraising.

The company also noted that raised funds would also advance its broader goal of accelerating web3 mass adoption and interoperability – specifically by continuing to scale and build Mocaverse’s interoperable infrastructure layer of account, identity and reputation systems for consumer crypto adoption.

This includes the platform’s Realm SDK, the interoperable software development kit (SDK).

Earlier this year, Mocaverse launched Moca ID, the pilot on-chain identity system of Realm SDK. Since launch, more than 1.79m Moca IDs have been registered and more than 160 web3 activations have been launched with partners that include Pixels, Blocklords, Trust Wallet, OKX Wallet and various others.

Animoca Brands said Mocaverse would continue to expand the Moca Network and drive consumer crypto adoption by integrating large, user-base ecosystems via partnerships with major companies and communities.

Mocaverse poised to join industry-defining players

CMCC Global co-founder and managing partner Martin Baumann said Animoca Brands was the innovation leader in Asia when it comes to blockchain-empowered consumer applications.

“Yat Siu and his team have an unmatched track record of building globally recognised leading blockchain and metaverse applications such as games, platforms, NFT-related apps, and more.

“At CMCC Global, we have identified and invested at seed stage in many of the leading blockchain infrastructure protocols such as Solana, Cosmos, Ethereum and others.”

Bauman foresees the next big wave in blockchain to be centred around consumer and mass market adoption with Animoca Brands’ Mocaverse poised to join those industry-defining players.

“That is why Mocaverse has become CMCC Global’s largest investment to date,” he said.

OKX Ventures partner Jeff Ren said by creating an interoperable infrastructure layer for consumer apps, Mocaverse integrated various cultural economies and maximises network effects.

“This investment signals our enthusiasm and determination to promote the development of the web3 world,” said Ren.

Decima Fund general partner Ken Kitahara added: “We are proud to back Yat, Animoca Brands and the Mocaverse team on their journey to bring clarity to onchain social graphs and activity and look forward to exploring unique Japanese opportunities for Mocaverse.”

Getting crypto in the hands of hundreds of millions of users

Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu said with Mocaverse and its Realm Network the company was bringing the web3 ethos of interoperability to life, driving decentralisation and shared network effects across the broader Web3 ecosystem.

“The raise announced today features participation from esteemed and strategically important investors, and we are honoured by this level of support as we work to advance digital property rights, interoperability, and the evolution of the Internet into more equitable decentralised systems,” he said.

This article was developed in collaboration with Animoca Brands, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.