Animoca Brands Japan Gets Off To A Great Start Raising $10M

Animoca Brands is off to conquer Japan! The Hong Kong-based company driving digital property rights via NFTs will now operate in the land of the rising sun under  Animoca Brands KK (Animoca Brands Japan). The strategic subsidiary is off to a good start because it has completed a raise of ¥1.1 Billion (approx $10 million) of funding in its seed round.

About Animoca Brands Japan

Animoca Brands Japan’s first order of business is to enable intellectual property (IP) holders in Japan to take advantage of the new digital technology. To achieve this, it will build a platform based on blockchain technology that covers the issuance of NFTs. In addition, the company will work with global professionals to help Japanese IP holders branch out into international markets.

The new entity has worthy allies by its side. The $10 Million seed round was from  MCP IPX One Fund. MCP Asset Management and Animoca Brands established the fund. Other investors include Kodansha Ltd. and Nishi-Nippon Railroad. Institutional investors from Japan and overseas, including Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, also participated.

Animoca Brands Japan is based in Tokyo’s Minato Ward and led by representative director Motoki Tani. He previously held executive positions as managing director and senior portfolio manager of Millennium Capital Management.

Why Japan?

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brand, shared what makes the Japanese market attractive. He commented:

“Japanese intellectual property includes a wealth of high-quality and appealing content. We are excited to establish Animoca Brands Japan and deeply honored to bring on institutional capital from the world’s most influential names in global Japanese culture, such as Kodansha and others. Our Japanese division will focus on partnering with IP owners in Japan to enable them to offer new Web3 products and services in the open metaverse.”

Expanding in Japan is actually a natural progression for Animoca Brands. Back in 2015, it enjoyed rapid success thanks to its mobile game featuring Japanese IP Doraemon. Users downloaded Doraemon Gadget Rush 1.8 million times in less than two weeks after the launch. So in terms of understanding the market, the company has it covered.

In addition, the Asian market is also heating up in terms of NFT and Metaverse adoption. China’s tech giants like WeChat owner Tencent and TikTok owner ByteDance are headed to the Metaverse. So this move will give Animoca Brands a solid footing in the region.

The parent company of The Sandbox can expand into any NFT segment or territory because early this year, it raised $358.8 Million with a  $5 Billion valuation. Aside from Japanese IPs, it is also looking to strengthen its hold of play-to-earn games. Together with Brinc, it launched a $30 Million guild accelerator program.