Animoca Brands Corporation Limited, the company advancing digital property rights for the open metaverse, and its subsidiary Bacasable Global Limited, operator of The Sandbox, a user-generated content (UGC) metaverse platform, announced that The Sandbox has raised US$20 million of convertible promissory notes with a US$1 billion valuation cap.
The strategic funding was “led by Kingsway Capital and Animoca Brands with participation by LG Tech Ventures and True Global Ventures.”
Noteholders have the ability “to convert into equity of Bacasable Global Limited at the same terms as existing preference shares.”
Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said:
“We are deeply honoured by the continuing commitment to the vision of The Sandbox, and we’re incredibly excited about the future of composable user-generated content games. McKinsey estimated that by 2030 the metaverse could add $5 trillion to the global economy; today, games like Minecraft and Roblox are some of the most popular titles in the world, but they do not provide their users with digital property rights. The Sandbox represents the evolution of UGC games for the age of digital ownership.”
The new funding will be used “to continue advancing The Sandbox’s vision of a decentralized virtual world where culture meets gaming and where the community is able to participate actively in, and derive benefit from, the growth of the whole ecosystem.”
As part of this vision, The Sandbox will continue “to improve earning opportunities for creators on its platform, including by: updating its Game Maker and VoxEdit 3D editor tools; introducing new social interactions and abilities for avatars; and expanding gameplay possibilities via its new multiplayer rules system, expected to launch in Beta later this year and to the public in 2025.”
Additionally, The Sandbox is “developing a version of its decentralized metaverse for mobile devices, expected to launch in 2025.”
The Sandbox, which opened to the public “in its Alpha version in November 2023, recently celebrated the milestone of 1,000 user-generated experiences live-published on its virtual map, with over 5.7 million users accounts connected to crypto wallets.”
The Sandbox has established itself “as one of the mainstream applications onboarding new users to Web3, leveraging the power of fandom to drive new audiences to explore the metaverse.”
It has over 400 partnerships “with global brands, including Lionsgate, Hellboy, Magnificent Century, Habbo, Space Invaders in Shibuya109, Notorious BIG, Warner Music, Ubisoft, Snoop Dogg, Gucci and hundreds of others. Over one hundred experiences featuring global brands are currently in production and planned for launch throughout 2024.”
In the last 12 months, over 330,000 unique creators “have downloaded The Sandbox’s no-code Game Maker, and The Sandbox is now ramping up its efforts to attract first-time creators through multiple initiatives including education efforts, bootcamps, and game jams.”
To date, over 60,000 avatar NFTs have “been sold and used to play in the virtual world of The Sandbox, including NFTs from 19 official branded collections such as Hellboy, Magnificent Century, Rabbids, MadBalls, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Paris Hilton, Captain Tsubasa, Maradona, Elvis Presley, Cut The Rope, Habbo Hotel, Agoria, and others.”
Arthur Madrid, CEO and co-founder of The Sandbox, said:
“The open metaverse empowers anyone to express themselves while discovering and engaging with the culture of millions of other users. Our mission at The Sandbox is to develop creative tools and technologies that bring fairness and new opportunities for all types of creators in the open metaverse in all aspects of culture, particularly games, music, fashion, art, sports, and entertainment.”
Sebastien Borget, COO and co-founder of The Sandbox, said:
“We’re excited to welcome new strategic partners who support our vision to develop the most accessible and inclusive platform that makes available the opportunities of Web3 to a global mainstream audience, and where brands and communities join hands to co-create the future of gaming and entertainment. The Sandbox is a proud believer in the power of the metaverse to shape our digital tomorrow to be collaborative, fair, and open.”