Animoca Denies $200M Metaverse Fund Cut

Animoca co-founder Yat Siu says that the company is pursuing its original plan to raise a metaverse fund. 

Venture Capital firm Animoca Brands has denied reports that its metaverse fund is being slashed to $800 million. Moreover, further reports that the company’s valuation has dropped to below $2 billion are inaccurate, according to co-founder Yat Siu. 

The reports centre around a Reuters article published on March 24th 2023. The report claims that Animoca’s metaverse fund is being cut by 20% to $800 million. In addition, the key information comes from anonymous sources.

The metaverse fund, announced in November 2022, is for mid-to-late stage metaverse startups. Initially, the fund was targeted for between $1 billion and $2 billion. Then, in January the number targeted was $1 billion.

However, speaking to Coin Telegraph, Animoca said: “The claim that the Animoca Capital fund target was ‘cut’ from $2 billion to $1 billion is not correct, because $1 billion has always been within the range declared.”

The statement added: “There’s no doubt that the FTX and banking crises have had a serious impact on available venture capital, but fundraising for the Animoca Capital fund is in progress. When the raise is concluded, we will inform the market with the appropriate details, including the final size of this fund.”

The valuation question

The Reuters report also claims that Animoca’s market cap valuation is below $2 billion. Indeed, Reuters supports these claims with information from the trading platform PrimaryMarkets. 

Responding to the claims made by Reuters, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu believes that the fact the sources are anonymous: “makes it difficult to ascertain exactly who or what the sources and agenda are, which is unfortunate.”

Furthermore, the company asserts that the figures given by Reuters and its sources are inaccurate. 

Animoca said in response: “We do not consider the thin trading activity on PrimaryMarkets to accurately reflect the company’s value. Trading volume is far too low to provide the price accuracy you would find on an actual primary market.”