f1 Delta Time

NFT game developer Animoca Brands is claiming the status of crypto’s latest unicorn after raising almost $89 million at a $1-billion valuation.

NFT-focussed game developer Animoca Brands has announced the completion of an $88,888,888 capital raise based on a valuation of $1 billion.

The raise was announced on Thursday, with participants including Kingsway Capital, HashKey Fintech Investment Fund, RIT Capital Partners and Huobi. Up to 93.4 million newly issued shares in Animoca Brands will be distributed to the investors at a subscription price of $0.85 each.

Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu noted that its strategic investors share the company’s “vision for NFTs redefining equity and property rights online.” Kingsway founder and CEO Manuel Stotz added:

“The emergence of digital property rights, whether via Bitcoin or NFTs, is perhaps the greatest opportunity for financial inclusion for the bottom three billion frontier and emerging market consumers, as well as an opportunity for a more decentralized and thus more equitable global internet.”

To commemorate the raise, Animoca will issue a special nonfungible token to its investors and key partners.

The company says that funding will be used for product development, acquisitions and securing licensing rights for its games. Animoca has released notable titles including The Sandbox, F1 Delta Time and MotoGP Ignition, and has invested in leading teams in the NFT space including Dapper Labs, OpenSea and Axie Infinity.

Last month, Animoca was ranked among Statista’s list of the top 500 high-growth companies in the Asia-Pacific region for 2021 in addition to being named one of Australia’s fastest-growing companies.

In February, Animoca announced that its entire REVV motorsports ecosystem would be deployed on Polygon’s layer-two sidechain to alleviate the high gas fees associated with using Ethereum’s mainnet, beginning with F1 Delta Time.

In December, an NFT representing 5% of the Monaco track in F1 Delta Time was auctioned for $222,000. The winning bidder will be able to earn dividends from races held on the track.