VC firm and Web3 game developer Animoca Brands has denied claims it has lowered its metaverse fund target by $200 million, or 20%, to $800 million amid volatility in the gaming market. cryptocurrencies and the instability of the banking sector.
The company also played down suggestions that its valuation has plummeted from $6 billion in July 2022 to approximately $2 billion in March 2023.
from a news In a March 24 Reuters report citing unnamed “persons familiar with the matter,” Animoca was said to have initially halved its $2 billion metaverse fund target in January, and recently cut it another 20% to $800 million.
The fund in question was announced in November 2022 to allocate capital to metaverse-focused mid-stage and late-stage startups. At the time, Animoca co-founder and president Yat Siu, he pointed that the fund’s goal was between $1 billion and $2 billion, depending on the amount of capital raised.
In a public statement shared with Cointelegraph, Animoca stated that “the claim that the Animoca Capital fund’s target was ‘cut’ from $2bn to $1bn is not correct, because $1bn has always been within the target.” declared range”.
The company acknowledged that the US banking collapse has, of course, had an impact, but stressed that the final amount raised for the fund is yet to be determined.
“There is no doubt that the FTX and banking crises have had a serious impact on available VC, but the fund raise for Animoca Capital is underway. When it is complete, we will inform the market with the necessary details, including the final size from this fund,” the company stated.
Commenting on the alleged leaked information, Siu told Cointelegraph that since the information came from anonymous sources, “it makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly who the sources and agenda are, which is unfortunate.”
“Angry Birds was not created by Activision.” @viewfromhkCEO of @animocabrandsexplains in our exclusive chat at @ParisBlockWeek that major game companies don’t always drive innovation.
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Regarding the valuation of the company, Animoca stated that the figures reported by Reuters and “two other” anonymous people quoted were inaccurate.
Animoca, trading as AB1, was initially listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in the early days of the company. However, AB1 stopped trading in March 2020 due to ASX claims that Animoca had breached its listing rules by engaging in cryptocurrency-related activities, among other things.
Since then, its shares have been listed on over-the-counter exchanges such as Sydney-based PrimaryMarkets.
Data from this platform was used to calculate AB1’s total market capitalization at about $2 billion. However, Animoca maintains that these figures do not fully represent the total valuation of the company.
“The affirmation […] that Animoca Brands ‘now trades on PrimaryMarkets’ is not technically correct. We terminated our agreement with PrimaryMarkets in the second half of 2020, but PrimaryMarkets chose to continue trading Animoca Brands shares on its platform,” the company stated, adding that:
“We do not believe the low trading activity on PrimaryMarkets accurately reflects the value of the company. The trading volume is too low to provide the pricing accuracy you would find on a real primary market.”
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