Animoca Brands is looking for at least $1 billion to create an investment fund dedicated to blockchain and metaverse startups. The number is significantly lower than the upper limit of $2 billion that the company announced for this same fund in November.
Animoca Brands, a leader in blockchain gamification and investment, announced the fundraising process for the first quarter of 2023 via a Twitter space with Bloomberg. Despite the downturn post-FTX, they remain hopeful about reaching their goal.
Chairman of Animoca Brands, Yat Siu, stated that “Q1 is the goal and then let’s see what happens,”. He also added, “It is fair to say it’s a challenging market. But we have quite a bit of interest.”
Fundraising a challenge in the crypto winter
Even though Animoca Brands plans to raise $1 Billion, the final amount may vary based on market conditions and VC Interest. Siu also mentioned that one of the company’s portfolio businesses recently completed a funding round with a well-known VC firm. This demonstrates that there is capital available in the space.
Back in November, Animoca was looking to raise up to $2 billion for its new fund. However, market conditions have seen these expectations halved. Through its new fund, Animoca Brands hopes to create a more connected and decentralized global economy.
Animoca Brands’ expectations for a market slow-down are in line with other Venture Capitalists. VCs are currently seeing slower investments due to the recent bailout of FTX and uncertain macroeconomic conditions. According to Messari data, December saw $660 million raised compared to November’s $840 million – a 21.5% decrease.
Moreover, results show a big decline in VC investments in crypto projects between December 2021 and December 2022. While $8 billion was deployed across 287 rounds in 2021, only $1.4 billion was invested across 112 rounds by VCs in December 2022 – a decrease of over 80%. This could show waning interest among institutional investors towards blockchain technology.
Final Thoughts
Despite the challenges posed by the collapse of FTX exchange in November and resulting market downturns, Animoca Brands is still hopeful that they will be able to reach their $1 billion goal this quarter.
Animoca Brands continues to remain optimistic about creating an entirely new economy driven by blockchain technology. They have been at the forefront of innovation and investment in this space and signs are they will stay there. Stay tuned for the latest updates on Animoca’s progress in the Web3 space.
