CORPORATE EXCELLENCE CATEGORY
Animoca Brands Corporation Limited
Telecommunications & ICT Industry
www.animocabrands.com
Company Introduction
Animoca Brands is a leader in the field of digital entertainment, specialising in blockchain, gamification and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token for blockchain motorsports, games such as The Sandbox and Crazy Defence Heroes, as well as products utilising popular intellectual properties such as Formula 1®, Thomas & Friends™ and MotoGP™. Animoca Brands is based in Hong Kong, United States, South Korea, Finland, Argentina and the Czech Republic.Animoca Brands believes that blockchain and in particular nonfungible tokens represent a huge opportunity for a paradigm shift in the digital entertainment industry, enabling true digital ownership of game assets. Consequently, over the past few years Animoca Brands has been consolidating a leadership position in the blockchain gaming industry.
Corporate Culture
Animoca Brands has an open office layout and embraces a flat, friendly and relaxed company culture. Ideas and suggestions from colleagues can reach the right people quickly. The company provides continued learning and exposure to learning opportunities, with the potential for sponsored study or exchange programs with one of its international subsidiaries. Animoca Brands is highly diverse and international, having employees from around 20 countries.Animoca Brands promotes a healthy work-life balance. The company does not demand that people work overtime, places value on work-life balance and self-care, and allows remote working arrangements. The company promotes regular activities during office hours for work-life balance. For example, there are multiple activities and competitions where people can team up, have fun, and express their creativity in non-work scenarios. Animoca Brands periodically rents a cinema and offers employees the opportunity to enjoy a blockbuster movie during office hours.
In Hong Kong, Animoca Brands is a long-term partner with the social enterprise Teen Future Association Company Limited to recruit marginalised youths to work in game quality assurance and customer service.
If there’s one name that has become synonymous with blockchain games in Asia - it’s Animoca Brands.” - Blockchain Gamer
Achievements and Impact
One of the key growth strategies of Animoca Brands is acquisition of and partnership with synergistic companies. In recent years Animoca Brands acquired Pixowl, nWay, Gamee, Quidd, Zeroth, TicBits, Leade.rs, Tribeflame, and Fuel Powered. It has partnered with Formula 1, MotoGP, Atari, Dapper Labs, WAX, OpenSea, Lucid Sight, Talent House, iClick, and Brinc. Animoca Brands, including all subsidiaries, has around 250 employees with offices in the United States, Argentina, Finland, Korea, Czech Republic, Canada and Hong Kong.Animoca Brands’ business has grown substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company reported a total revenue for the 4 months ended 30 April 2020 of A$10.5 million. In July 2020, Animoca Brands received strategic investments totalling US$4.1 million from strategic investors including M7 Asia and Mind Fund. The company is on track for its best ever financial performance in 2020.
Animoca Brands’ game F1® Delta Time has held auctions for official Formula 1 digital collectibles in the form of non-fungible tokens, and these have enjoyed strong demand. The recordsetting first edition “1-1-1” car sold for a record price of 415.9 ether (approximately US$113,000 at the time), which was the most expensive NFT of 2019. More recently, F1® Delta Time’s first crate sale generated over US$364,000.
The Sandbox, a user generated content blockchain game developed and published by a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, has conducted successful LAND presales in 2020, selling more than US$1.5 million in virtual real estate in its metaverse game world. The Sandbox recently completed a US$3 million token raise on Binance Launchpad, the exclusive token launch platform for transformative blockchain projects.
Animoca Brands’ strategy has resulted in strong influence and opportunity in the space of blockchain gaming, and the company was ranked #5 on BlockchainGamer.biz’s list of Top 50 blockchain companies 2020.
A quote from industry pundit publication BlockchainGamer sums up the outcome that Animoca Brands has been working toward: “If there’s one name that has become synonymous with blockchain games in Asia — it’s Animoca Brands.”
Future Direction
Collectibles are a $370 billion dollar market, and scarcity is what drives this market. Blockchain enables important properties previously found exclusively in physical collectibles, such as scarcity, provenance, and ownership, making blockchain a gamechanger for digital collectors.It’s not just for collectors; non-fungible tokens can benefit gamers because they enable true digital ownership, for the first time giving players full ownership and control of their game assets. Because of that, Animoca Brands thinks that non-fungible tokens can significantly increase Free2Play conversion rates (merely a 1% increase in global conversion represents a $20-25 billion growth opportunity). Additionally, blockchain allows play-to-earn models in which players can earn cryptocurrency by playing their favourite games or even by simply owning crypto assets that generate revenue.
COMPANY MILESTONES
