Animoca Brands Japan raises US$ 45M to expand its Web3 business

Animoca Brands KK, the Japanese unit of Hong Kong blockchain gaming and development firm Animoca Brands raised US$45 million from its parent company Animoca Brands and the world’s second-largest financial group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG).

The investment takes the company’s pre-money valuation to approximately US$ 500million. 

With the additional capital, the Japanese unit intends to expand internal capabilities, secure local licenses for popular anime and manga intellectual properties (IP) and encourage adoption of Web3 to partners while ‘while fostering the development of a safe and secure NFT ecosystem in Japan.’

MUFG and Animoca Brands Japan first considered a collaboration in March ‘in order to energize the NFT market in Japan.’

The move comes despite Japan's imposition of a 30% corporate tax on profit from cryptocurrency holdings, in the midst of a trove of anime, manga, video games and other popular forms of content that can be turned into NFT services and IP licensing rights.

Photo: Animoca Brands KK