Brinc says it intends to use the capital generated from the Animoca Brands round to expand its business interests in Web 3 and blockchain.
Hong Kong venture accelerator Brinc recently concluded a $130 million funding round led by Animoca Brands. The exercise was a $30 million in Series B funding and an additional $100 million channeled towards startup investments. This will be similar to how a VC fund operates. In fact, Brinc says that it already lent support to more than 200 startups since its inception seven years ago.
According to Brinc, the most recently-generated funds will be used to expand its interests in digital finance (Defi) and crypto gaming. This includes increases in available programming on offer, locations, as well as staff force. In addition, the venture accelerator is eyeing Web 3, which also encompasses blockchain-centric offerings in the space.
Animoca Brands is playing a key role so far in Brinc’s quest to foray into new territory like Web 3 and NFTs. Founder and chairman of Animoca Brands Yat Siu touched on this trend saying:
“Brinc is the leading name in startup acceleration for emerging markets and technologies, and its sights are set firmly on the future and on sustainability. We share a common vision of an open future with blockchain adoption in traditional and growth sectors, and we look forward to the innovations that will emerge from its acceleration programs.”
As a matter of fact, last year, both platforms launched Launchpad Luna, a blockchain and NFT accelerator.
Brinc currently has seven offices operating in 12 locations. Furthermore, company co-founder Bay McLaughlin already identified some Asian markets as grounds for the planned expansion of the platform. They include Japan, Korea, Singapore, and India – in addition to increased company visibility in China. Furthermore, Brinc opened an office and launched an accelerator program in São Paulo Brazil over a month ago. This represents the platform’s first official presence in Latin America.
Apart from Brinc, Animoca Brands Has Big Plans to Blow Up GameFi and Other Blockchain-Based Projects
Animoca has been keeping busy with its quest to promote and facilitate blockchain gaming projects within the still-emerging metaverse. The Hong Kong-based gaming software company recently teamed up with Binance Smart Chain (BSC) to establish a $200 million VC program. The primary purpose of this fund is to invest in early-stage crypto/blockchain-focused projects.
Even more recently, Animoca led a $3.5 million funding round organized by Stacks for its first Bitcoin metaverse game Moonray. Moonray is an NFT action role-playing game that will roll out on the Bitcoin-backed Stacks network early next year to select players. Since the Bitcoin network itself is unable to support smart contracts, Stacks will act as the filler. The open-source protocol will execute the transactions and subsequently settle them to the Bitcoin network.
Moonray will execute on the Stacks network via several ways – including in-game accessories, which take the form of NFTs. Furthermore, players will be able to initially purchase these NFTs using BTC exclusively. However, they will also be able to eventually use their credit cards as well for in-game purchases.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
