Metaverse startup The Sandbox has closed a $93 million Series B funding round led by SoftBank, in which Animoca Brands, Galaxy Interactive, True Global Ventures, Liberty City Ventures, and other investors took part. This is the first investment in crypto by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Sandbox saw significant growth in 2021
The Sandbox will use the funds to speed up development of its open metaverse, involving more IPs and brands and supporting more creators. The Sandbox saw significant growth this year. It generated over $144 million in lifetime gross merchandise value with more than 500,000 registered wallets and 12,000 unique virtual LAND owners.
Expanding beyond gaming
The Sandbox ecosystem is growing rapidly, creating game makers, virtual architects, NFT creators, and other new digital jobs, but not only. The platform is expanding into virtual shows, fashion, architecture, museums, art galleries, and more.
How The Sandbox works
The Sandbox is an Ethereum-based (ETH/USD) platform that allows players to create and control their own virtual world. They can own NFTs like plots of land to build on. According to CoinMarketCap, their token SAND has a $2.46 billion market cap.
Ownership and partnerships
Animoca Brands holds the majority share in Sandbox. The Hong Kong-based gaming company was one of the earliest metaverse backers.
The Sandbox has partnerships with AMC TV series The Walking Dead, rapper Snoop Dogg, children’s cartoons The Smurfs and Care Bears, NFT collection CryptoKitties, and gaming brand Atari according to a Sandbox press release.
Sebastien Borget, COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox, commented:
This investment round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 will help scale up our growth strategy, operations, and player acquisition in The Sandbox ecosystem while sending a clear statement that the world’s most innovative fund believes in Web3 and decentralization as the next major trend. Adding new strategic partners such as Liberty City Ventures and Galaxy Interactive will also benefit The Sandbox’s global reach and expand the network of brands, IPs, and gaming studios interested in entering an open metaverse focused on a player-owned economy and user-generated content.
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