What started as a humble mobile game development company has transformed into a major player in digital entertainment and a true giant of the blockchain industry.
that company is Animoca brands.
From technology and gaming to nfts, collectibles, infrastructure and more, Animoca Brands has played a role in a significant number of the major developments in blockchain over the last decade. What is Animoca Brands, who are you involved with and what impact will they have in the future?
Here is our complete 2024 guide for <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/animocabrands” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Animoca brands.
What are Animoca brands?
Animoca Brands was founded in 2014 by <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/ysiu” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Yat Siua visionary entrepreneur and angel investor. Born and raised in Vienna, Austria, he held key positions at Atari Germany and Lexicor before making his mark by founding free email and website provider Hong Kong Cybercity in 1996, and founding web services company Outblaze, which was acquired by IBM.
Based in Hong Kong, Animoca specializes in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gaming. Its mission is to promote ownership of digital assets and contribute to the development of an open metaverse.
Under Yat Siu's leadership, Animoca Brands has become a major player in blockchain and Web3 gaming. Yat Siu has been recognized as a Global Leader of Tomorrow and Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and is highly regarded for his business acumen.
Animoca Brands is best known for its series of in-house products and notable investments. They are behind companies like Mocaverse, The Sandbox and REVV Racing, as well as having over 380 investments in Web3 projects, including names like Axie Infinity, OpenSea and Pudgy Penguins.
The history of Animoca brands.
Animoca Brands was established in 2014 and initially focused on mobile game development. Many of her early titles were notable successes, such as Pretty Pet Salon and Cinderella Cafe.
Initial funding from prominent venture capital firms such as Intel Capital and IDG-Accel allowed them to expand rapidly, and in 2017, Animoca made the decision to begin incorporating blockchain technology into their products. As one of the first major institutional players in the space, they acquired game developers Pixowl in 2018 and launched <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/TheSandboxGame” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>The sandbox – noted as one of the first metaverse titles.
By 2020, Animoca Brands had become an industry giant. They became a venture capital firm in their own right, offering seed funding and partnerships to many emerging teams that would create tools that were essential to the first nft boom in 2021, such as OpenSea.
This success came with recognition, and Animoca is recognized by the Financial Times as a high-growth company in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as a winner of the prestigious Deloitte tech Fast award.
In recent years, the company has further expanded its role in the blockchain ecosystem. They presented their <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/Moca_Network” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Mocaverse nfts in March 2023, followed by the Moca ID and Realm Points (RP) systems, which improve participation between communities and kick off new trends in user rewards. They launched their long-awaited $MOCA token in May 2024, tokenizing their ecosystem and giving the broader community an easier way to get involved in their developments.
Today, Animoca Brands acts as a funding source, advisor, and practical assistant for those looking to build or integrate blockchain technology into their products.
They have had an important role in many of the most popular projects, tools and services. This includes games like <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/TheSandboxGame” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>The sandbox and <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/AxieInfinity” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>infinite axienft collectibles like <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/pudgypenguins” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Chubby penguins and its own Mocaverse, and infrastructure tools like the nft marketplace <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/opensea” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Open sea.
His fingerprints can also be found on many of the projects that have had widespread success. The most notable example of this is his support for <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/dapperlabs” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Elegant laboratoriesthe studio behind collectible sports platforms <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/NBATopShot” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Best shot in the NBA and <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/NFLALLDAY” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>NFL all day.
What's next for Animoca Brands?
2025 will be Animoca Brands' biggest year yet.
In July 2024, Animoca Brands President Yat Siu stated that the company would seek to go public in the second half of 2025, opening the company to the public markets for the first time since 2020. With the cryptocurrency and nft markets in boom in late 2024, this could prove to be a suitable way for ordinary people and traditional investors to access the Animoca ecosystem.
$MOCA will play an important role in the future of the company and its community engagement efforts. Mocaverse continues to receive extensive funding, and Animoca seeks to make Mocaverse the go-to identity, account, and reputation system across the Web3 industry.
Projects like The Sandbox continue to grow, especially with the revitalized interest in metaverse projects in recent months, and their external investment portfolio continues to grow, which will undoubtedly shape the blockchain industry for years to come.
At the heart of Animoca were two objectives; promote the concept of digital asset rights and make the open metaverse a reality. By 2025, Animoca could be on track to make both goals a reality.
