The virtual world project The Sandbox has announced its Metaverse Accelerator Program that will drive the development of the open metaverse by investing $50 million in startups. The Animoca Brands subsidiary has partnered with venture accelerator Brinc to commit 30 to 40 blockchain startups a year to the program.
The Metaverse Sandbox Accelerator Program will allocate up to $250,000 of investment to each potential project and give additional incentives to the highest performing projects. Bonuses include The Sandbox digital asset (SAND) and LAND, digital real estate within The Sandbox metaverse. Apart from this, the best performing startups will also have access to additional investment grants and high-level mentors.
According to The Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget, the program is an expansion of their goal to support a new wave of entrepreneurs in the metaverse. Thanks to this, startups from all over the world can make their ideas come true. “We are especially eager to support underrepresented founders in their ambitions as they explore the endless possibilities The Sandbox ecosystem offers,” he said.
Applications are now open and the first batch of investments is scheduled to be made in the second quarter of 2022. The program is developed within Launchpad Luna, a collaborative effort of Animoca Brands and Brinc that aims to support the development of the startups.
The program supports the development of an open metaverse, the metaverse that is not owned by a single entity. According to Animoca Brands co-founder and CEO Yat Siu, the open metaverse “presents an incredible opportunity to create a non-zero-sum participatory and collaborative environment based on openness, fairness, user governance, and property rights.” digital”.
In addition to supporting businesses, the development of the metaverse can also help the environment in the long run. Manav Gupta, founder and CEO of Brinc, believes that “as digital experiences develop, we will find ourselves with fewer reasons to emit carbon to travel for work or play.” Gupta says this can decrease demand for physical products like art and merchandise that have unsustainable production methods.