The Sandbox, an Animoca Brands subsidiary and an Ethereum-based NFT metaverse platform, has secured $93 million in its Series B funding round. A report unveiled this news earlier today, noting that the Hong Kong-based company seeks to use the funds to expand its metaverse economy beyond gaming. Reportedly, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 spearheaded this funding alongside other notable investors.
According to the report, this funding round became SoftBank Vision Fund 2’s second investment in a company that generates its own crypto. Other investors in the financing round included Animoca Brands, True Global Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, SCB 10X, Polygon Studios, Liberty City Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, and Samsung Next, among others.
Explaining why SoftBank Vision Fund 2 decided to invest in The SandBox, Aaron Wong, an investor at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said the company uses the blockchain and decentralized governance to offer its users control. He added that SoftBank believes The Sandbox is creating an open universe, which unlocks new economic opportunities by empowering people to monetize their creations.
While The Sandbox declined to disclose its valuation after securing the $93 million, the platform’s native token, SAND, has been making moon shots and currently has a market cap of $2.49 billion. At the time of writing, SAND is changing hands at $2.74 after gaining 27.05% in 24 hours and 228% over the past week.
Big plans ahead
Detailing how the company seeks to spend the funds obtained from the Series B financing round, The Sandbox’s COO, Sebastien Borget, said the investment would be instrumental in helping the Sandbox creators’ economy expand from gaming into fashion, architecture, and virtual concerts.
Borget added that,
We are creating this open metaverse. We are positioning the Sandbox against those giant tech companies who are claiming the metaverse to be theirs, offering an alternative where users are first.
The Series B financing round came after The Sandbox completed its Series A funding round a little over a year ago. Since then, the company has recorded significant growth in various verticals. According to the company, the platform has recorded an NFT transaction volume of $144 million despite the game not being live yet.
Apart from the transaction volume, The Sandbox has 12,000 unique LAND plot owners and 500,000 users who have connected a crypto wallet to its platform.
Forging strategic partnerships along the way
With the game’s alpha testing version set to drop before the end of the year, the company has already partnered with several celebrities, including ardent NFT collector Snoop Dogg. These celebrities will host an exclusive party for 1,000 users within the game. The Sandbox has also teamed up with The Walking Dead, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Atari, and cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
