Animoca Brands, the company advancing digital property rights for the open metaverse, and its subsidiary Bacasable Global Limited (operator of The Sandbox), a leading user-generated content (UGC) metaverse platform, announced that The Sandbox has raised $20 million of convertible promissory notes with a $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 can convert into equity of Bacasable Global Limited at the same terms as existing preference shares.
This 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.
The Sandbox will continue improving 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 through its new multiplayer rules system, expected to launch in Beta later this year and to the public in 2025. And 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 5.7+ million user accounts connected to crypto wallets.
The Sandbox is now one of the leading mainstream applications onboarding new users to Web3, utilizing the power of fandom to drive new audiences to explore the metaverse. It has 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 this year.
Over the last year, 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, boot camps, and game jams.
So far, 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 like Hellboy, Magnificent Century, Rabbids, MadBalls, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Paris Hilton, Captain Tsubasa, Maradona, Elvis Presley, Cut The Rope, Habbo Hotel, Agoria, and others.
In the last six months, The Sandbox has passed various notable milestones, including enabling all of its more than 25,000 virtual real estate owners to publish their LAND experiences to the public; opening its Marketplace on Polygon’s L2, enabling creators to mint and sell their digital assets; and developing a thriving economy in which users have created more than 11,000 unique digital assets that have been minted and sold over half a million times.
The Sandbox ecosystem now boasts more than 250 Trusted Partners, who are people and agencies trained and certified by The Sandbox to assist brands and IP holders in building metaverse experiences for their fans. The number of Trusted Partners is expected to continue to grow as The Sandbox explores new markets in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Africa, among others.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are deeply honored 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.”
- Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands
“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.”
- Arthur Madrid, CEO and co-founder of The Sandbox
“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.”
- Sebastien Borget, COO and co-founder of The Sandbox
“Our mission at LG Tech Ventures is to bolster the visionaries who are shaping emerging trends, including Web3 adoption and consumer entertainment. The Sandbox’s distinctive approach to Web3 and gaming can unlock transformative opportunities for the global creators economy.”
- Anshul Agarwa, managing director at LG Technology Ventures
