Web3 Company Animoca Brands Lowers Fundraising Goal to $1 Billion in Q1 2023 – Metaverse

Animoca Brands, a Web3 gaming-focused company, has announced that it is now seeking to raise $1 billion for a fund aimed at providing aid to already established blockchain projects. The figure is well below the $2 billion the firm announced as the cap for the same fund in November.

Animoca Brands Announces Lower Numbers for Web3 and Metaverse Fund

Animoca Brands, one of the most popular Web3 gaming and blockchain companies, has made a new announcement regarding its fundraising goals for the first quarter of 2023. Yat Siu, a co-founder of the company, recently specified In a Twitter Spaces chat, it wanted to raise $1 billion from various parties for a fund tentatively named Animoca Capital, which would focus its activities on supporting already established Web3 projects.

This number is significantly lower than the target Siu first set in November revealed plans to launch this fund, stating that Animoca Brands expects to raise up to $2 billion. At the time, Siu acknowledged the challenge that raising this amount of money would pose, as the demise of FTX had recently rocked the cryptocurrency world.

Siu explained that this event affected a dozen of the projects in Animoca Brands' portfolio, with the backlash affecting the broader cryptocurrency market.

Optimism remains

However, even if these events impact the state of the crypto and Web3 markets, Animoca Brands is optimistic about the outcome of this endeavor. On the topic of achieving the newly announced goal, Siu explained:

Q1 is the goal and then we'll see what happens. It's fair to say it's a challenging market. But we have quite a bit of interest.

However, as in November, Siu did not disclose any investors interested in backing this fund. The fund will focus on investing in late-stage Web3 gaming and Metaverse projects, which are considered less risky than investing money in emerging startups.

Animoca Brands has no plans to raise funds for itself this year. Data from company disclosures suggests it had more than $200 million in cash and around $940 million in cryptocurrencies as part of its reserves as of November. In July the company educated $75 million, giving a valuation of $5.9 billion.

More recently, in September, Animoca secured $110 million in a round led by Temasek, a Singapore VC firm, Boyu Capital and GGV Capital.

What do you think of the new target Animoca Brands announced for its Web3 fund? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio Goschenko

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price surge occurred in December 2017. He has a background as a computer engineer, lives in Venezuela and is affected by the cryptocurrency boom on a social level. He offers a different perspective on crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

Photo credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, WikiCommons