Sandbox’s Metaverse $93 Million Funding Round Led by SoftBank
Sandbox is an Ethereum-based startup metaverse that enables gamers to build their own virtual world and monetize NFTs and other digital assets. It renders creators with ownership on NFTs and offers them the means to mint their own assets on the platform. The company is under Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based capital firm that supports the metaverse and GameFi.
The Sandbox, a metaverse startup, has raised almost $100 million in a funding round supported primarily by Softbank, along with other investors, including Animoca Brands, SCB 10X, Polygon Studios, Samsung Next, Liberty City Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, True Global Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Alpaca VC, Graticule Asset Management Asia, Blue Pool Capital, LG Technology Ventures, Com2uS, executives at GoldenTree Asset Management, Nokota, Sound Ventures, Red Beard Ventures, Sun Hung Kai & Co, Double Down Partners, StakeFish, SterlingVC and HodlCo.
Arthur Madrid, CEO of The SandBox, stated that the funding would be used to aid the growth of the company beyond gaming, and into economies like architecture, fashion, virtual concerts, artworks, museums and more. The company will hire creative individuals who will develop the gaming experience and infrastructure. The SandBox has collaborations with brands and famous individuals, including Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead and The CryptoKitties, and it has more than 500,000 users.
Its cryptocurrency, The Sandbox (SAND/USD), has a market cap of $2.3 billion, with the company currently owning 22% of its tokens. The price of the coin surged over 200% after Facebook announced that it would change its company name to META last week. This caught the interest of investors in companies that create metaverse gaming frameworks. Metaverse refers to a universe of virtual worlds, where everything is connected and accessible anywhere.