Animoca creates billion-dollar metaverse fund for developers

The GameFi champion and metaverse developer Animoca Brands has a billion-dollar fund in its plans, according to a report from Nikkei Asia on Nov. 30.

Animoca Brands’ co-founder Yat Siu said in an interview that the fund could potentially have up to $2 billion dollars to allot to mid to late-stage startups with a metaverse focus. The fund and the exact amount available to developers have yet to be finalized.

Cointelegraph reached out to Animoca Brands for a comment, to which the company confirmed that the fund is “in the works.”

According to the interview with Siu there will be no geographical restrictions for those to receive funding and the primary focus will be “everything on digital property rights.”

He also said the funds are intended to speak to a more mature developmental atmosphere in the Web3 – metaverse space, which allows investors to pursue capital efficiency and optimize returns.

“The fund will be focused on equity optimization.”

Animoca is a majority shareholder in one of the leading metaverse platforms, The Sandbox. The first investments from the new fund are anticipated in 2023. 

Related: NFT games are ‘only scratching the surface’ of what’s possible — Animoca’s Yat Siu

Aside from its investment in The Sandbox metaverse, Animoca has been highly involved in both nonfungible token (NFT) and GameFi development. Siu was quoted saying that he believes GameFi will be one of the major onramps for masses to enter the metaverse.

Despite some recent bumps in the road with misinterpreted metaverse engagement statistics, investors and the surrounding community remain bullish on the metaverse as a hub of future online engagement.

An investment report from DappRadar revealed $1.3 billion in investment for GameFi and metaverse initiatives combined in Q3. Of that, 36% were specifically for Web3 metaverse infrastructure projects.

Along with investment, there are many projects in the works for efficient tools that will make metaverse design more accessible to developers.