Animoca Brands establishes Japanese subsidiary and guild accelerator program
Animoca Brands’ new Japanese operations are expected to build and expand fan communities through the issue and fungible and non-fungible tokens and participate in the Web 3.0 ecosystem.
Blockchain gaming company Animoca Brands is keen to maintain its rampant growth spurt by establishing a base of operations in Japan, under a new “strategic subsidiary” called Animoca Brands Japan.
The new business unit is being funded by a US$10 million (A$14 million) capital raise carried out as part of the new subsidiary’s initial seed round, conducted last month.
According to Animoca Brands, it closed its seed round from MCP IPX One Fund, a fund first established by MCP Asset Management which includes Kodansha and Nishi-Nippon Railroad as domestic institutional investors, along with Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank as a significant overseas investor.
The new Japanese entity will be led by representative director Motoki Tani, previously a managing director and senior portfolio manager of Millennium Capital Management and a senior yen bond trader at US investment bank JP Morgan.
In a statement to the market, Animoca Brands explained its newly-founded Japanese operations are intended to “build and expand fan communities via the issue of their own NFTs and fungible tokens” and participation in the broader Web 3.0 ecosystem.
Longer term, the gaming company said it will seek to “help Japanese IP holders branch out into international markets” as part of an overarching strategy of creating an interactive open metaverse capable of enabling decentralised in-game monetisation.
“We are excited to establish Animoca Brands Japan and deeply honoured to bring on institutional capital from the world’s most influential names in global Japanese culture, such as Kodansha and others,” Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu said.
Mr Siu also noted Animoca Brands’ Japanese division will focus on “partnering with IP owners in Japan to enable them to offer new Web 3.0 products and services in the open metaverse”.
Going to the Brinc of innovation
In parallel news to its new Japanese subsidiary, Animoca Brands has also made progress with its multi-million-dollar “metaverse accelerator” program in collaboration with Hong Kong venture capital accelerator Brinc.
Earlier this week, the blockchain gaming developer announced the launch of a “guild accelerator program” to be led by its entrepreneur-in-residence Richard Robinson. The program is offering around US$30 million (A$42 million) of investment capital to new upstarts over the next two years, to build and grow the play-to-earn (P2E) guild ecosystem globally.
According to Animoca Brands, its guild accelerator program will enable millions of people around the world to generate income by participating in P2E gaming via what’s known as crypto “gaming guilds” – organised groups of gamers who regularly play multiplayer games together.
The company also confirmed its guild accelerator program has been set as a “dedicated track” with Launchpad Luna, the accelerator co-launched by Brinc and Animoca Brands. The closing date for online applications has been set as 27 February 2022 with the first cohort scheduled to commence in May.
Importantly, both Brinc and Animoca Brands have emphasised the importance of sustainability as a selection criterion for admission to the program and have both asserted that admissions will be prioritised considering the expected high demand.
“This includes projects that support and give back to player/scholar communities, place emphasis on energy-efficient proof-of-stake protocols and side chains, and have lower overall physical footprints,” Animoca Brands said.
Described by Brinc’s founder and chief executive officer Manav Gupta as “an on-ramp for the future of earning”, the new guild program is seeking to support and grow a new breed of Web 3.0-enabled guilds that allow for greater digital asset ownership and stakeholder utilisation, able to be leveraged across all areas of society.
“Guilds can help transform education, skill development, agriculture, research and development and almost any industry where access to tools and assets historically prevented anyone with time to innovate, upskill and thus earn a living.”
“We’re excited to meet founding teams that challenge the way we think about the applications and impact of guilds across all industries,” Mr Gupta said.
Interestingly, the program has already rallied significant mentors and experts to its side including the Avocado Guild founder Brendan Wong, YGG’s head of partnerships Saruboti Sasuke, and Howard Xu, co-founder of the Vietnam-based guild Ancient8.
For the time being, Animoca Brands has specified a maximum funding limit of US$500,000 (A$700,000) per guild to ensure a balanced appropriation of funds and noted that to optimise each guild’s performance and scale growth most adequately, the accelerator program will “foster innovation, set up management and operational systems, share best-in-class learnings from world-class mentors, expand each platform’s user base and assets, and help raise funds beyond the start-up phase.”
“As the world enters a new era of work and play, the play-to-earn guilds space has enormous potential for growth. The management of digital assets in games and in the open metaverse represents a significant source of income for hundreds of millions of people,” Mr Siu said.
“The future of work in the metaverse is being written today, and we are proud to foster the guilds that are driving the evolution of these new opportunities,” he added.