Animoca Brands portfolio investments is worth over US$ 1.5 billion

Hong Kong based Blockchain game publisher and venture capital firm, Animoca Brands revealed its unaudited financial and business highlights for the last three months and the first four months of 2022. 

The firm held over 340 investments worth around US$ 1.5 billion in total across more than 340 investments at the end of April. 

Meanwhile, the report showed US$ 148 million in the last three months of 2021 and US$ 573 million in Animoca’s bookings and other income from January 1st to April 30th.

'Bookings' included token sales, NFT sales (including secondary sales and non-blockchain activities. “Other income” portion includes gains and losses of the company’s investments and digital asset holdings.

Cash balances stood at US$ 98 million and digital asset holdings were US$ 211million at the end of April. These digital asset holdings include Bitcoin, Ethereum and a mixture of top stablecoins in the form of  USDC, USDT and BUS. 

Other digital asset holdings, including third-party tokens, amounted to US$ 659 million. 

The firm also holds its Animoca Brands tokens on reserve, including SAND QUIDD, PRIMATE, REVV, TOWER, GMEE and others, which are not reflected on its balance sheet. 

Since Animoca Brands went public in 2014, it started off as a mobile developer that relished in considerable success but shared a majority of their casual games to iCandy to advance their capabilities beyond mobile. This key moment gave them enough liquidity and freedom to pivot to the mobile games and Web3 powered gaming frontier. 

They started off by investing in AI technologies with its acquisition of Zeroth AI Accelerator, then Fuel Powered, a developer of multi-player technology. 

Next, they acquired Pixowl, a company that develops mobile games and the highly successful game - The Sandbox. This allowed Animoca Brands to expand into NFTs and the emerging Blockchain gaming space. In 2018, the firm achieved a revenue of US$ 14.9 million, largely attributable to its hit mobile games, Defense Heroes and a US$ 11 million reseller deal with iClick marketing.

Since its skyrocketing success in 2018, Animoca Brands have been actively strengthening and expanding its Web3 and gaming influence through combining brand licensing, game development and Blockchain and NFTs in its growing portfolio. 

The firm acquired Quidd, an NFT marketplace that has partnerships with 325 major brands, giving Animoca Brands far-reaching access to licensing partners in the NFT space. 

Stryking Entertainment, a leading operator of German fantasy football game, Football-Stars, adding on to Animoca Brands’ licensing arrangement with major international sports brands, including Formula 1® and Major League Baseball. This acquisition also allows the firm to expand into the sports licensing industry and further explore NFTs’ diverse use cases as in-game assets. 

Animoca Brands leverages on strong game development experiences through its acquisitions of nWay and Blowfish. nWay for its access to licensed brands including Power Rangers and WWE and Blowfish for its development of an NFT game called Phantom Galaxies. 

The firm also doubled down on its push to NFTs and Blockchain space by acquiring Australia-based social advertising firm Be Media for their help in securing partnerships using its IPs and new decentralized products. Animoca Brands also acquired Bondly for its success in developing early NFTs for celebrities; Lympho for using Blockchain technology to provide fitness rewards and sports in games; Darewise Entertainment, to fast-track in-game development by using a combination of expert AAA game development with Blockchain integration, NFTs and play-and-earn capabilities.

Only last week, Animoca Brands completed the acquisition of 100% of the issued capital of Notre Games, a game development and publishing company best-known for creating Scratch Wars, a hybrid physical and digital collectible card mobile game. 

It’s also worthy to note that the firm received a US$ 360 million million raise in January, led by Liberty City Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, and Soros Fund Management. The raise brought Animoca Brands’ total valuation to US$ 5.5 billion, representing a doubling in its value in just three months. 

Photo: Animoca Brands