The $200 million chain travel investment plan launched by Animoca and Binance a year ago has made slow progress. One year ago, Animoca Brands and BNB Chain announced a $200 million joint investment plan, but only a small amount of investment has been made. In addition, Animoca is preparing to launch a new $2 billion fund for later investment in the meta universe.

1、 Slow progress of the plan

The $200 million chain travel investment plan launched by Animoca and Binance a year ago has progressed slowly. One year ago, Animoca Brands and BNBChain announced a $200 million joint investment plan, but only a few investments. Animoca is preparing to launch a new fund of 2 billion US dollars for investment in the late meta universe.

In December 2021, before the cryptocurrency bear market, AnimocaBrands and BinanceSmartChain announced a new investment plan of 200 million dollars for cryptocurrency game startups. However, a year later, the plan made little investment. According to the data provided by Dealroom, since the project was announced, BinanceLabs, the investment department of Binance, a Web3 game and software giant Animoca Cryptocurrency Exchange, has participated in the same round of financing only three times, and even these transactions do not seem to have been realized through the joint financing plan. The program aims to incubate BNBChain based games. The companies that received the investment were Heroes of Mavia, Community Gaming and Tatsumeeko, crypto game start-ups. From January to June this year, the three raised $5.5 million, $16 million and $7.5 million respectively. A person directly familiar with the matter said that these rounds of investment were not carried out through joint investment plans. This is reasonable, because Heroes of Mavia is built on Ethereum, Tatsumeeko is built on Ethereum and Solana, while CommunityGaming is not a game, but a platform that provides e-sports infrastructure. When asked about the progress of the plan, the spokesman of Animoca stressed that Animoca and Binance had made six "joint investments" in BlinkMoon, CryptoSlam, AvocadoGuild, GuildFi, Game and LiveArtX, but with some possible exceptions, these did not seem to be part of the $200 million plan. The game guild AvocadoGuild and GuildFi raised funds before the program was launched; CryptoSlam is a data aggregator BNB chain of NFT data aggregator data aggregator; LiveArtX is a digital art trading and discovery website; Gamee was acquired by Animoca in 2020. It was not until February this year that BinanceLabs obtained strategic funds. Only game studios. BlinkMoon may meet the planned criteria. Gwendolyn Regina, BNBChain's investment director, told TheBlock that Web3 games were still "a fairly emerging field", although AxieInfinity and TheSandbox waited for the game to be relatively successful. "Without solid infrastructure and tools, we cannot create excellent game projects." She added. The joint investment plan seems to have been adjusted accordingly. "At the beginning, the fund had a mission, but we allowed it to expand to other areas, such as associations that we think support the game ecosystem, because it is meaningful. We have invested and continue to cooperate, so considering the events in 2022, the investment may be slower than expected," Regina said. She further said that Animoca and BNBChain have been cooperating all the time and "often share opinions, transaction processes and cooperation opportunities in the ecosystems of both sides", but she added that she "cannot disclose the full extent of our cooperation". Another noteworthy cooperation between Binance and Animoca is that AxieInfinity development company SkyMavis raised $150 million in April. SkyMavis lost $540 million in serious hacking. The Block later revealed that the investment scale of Binance in this round of financing was significantly reduced - in any case, this did not meet the criteria of the joint investment plan. 2、 "Large scale adoption of cryptocurrency" When announcing this news, Regina of BNBChain wrote in a blog post that the game's "large-scale real life use cases make it one of the core focus areas for large-scale adoption of cryptocurrency, enabling retail investors to enter Web3." The plan is part of BNBChain's US $1 billion growth plan, of which US $100 million is used for joint investment with Heihe and Animoca, and Animoca also invests US $100 million. AnimocaBrands is probably the most active crypto game investor on the Internet. The company's hundreds of investment projects include The Sandbox, DapperLabs and StarAtlas. Although the cooperation between Animoca and Binance has temporarily stopped, Animoca is still very active. In the first half of this year, Hong Kong based companies made more than 60 investments. According to the situation. As of September, The Block Research had made 340 investments. Last week, Yat Siu, the co-founder and CEO of AnimocaBrands, in an interview, the company planned to launch a fund of up to 2 billion dollars, AnimocaCapital, which is expected to make the first investment next year in the later stage of investment in the meta universe business. The target financing amount of the Fund is US $1-2 billion, but the target financing amount is US $1-2 billion. YatSiu said it had not raised funds. To sum up, the reasons for the slow progress of the $200 million chain game investment plan launched by Animoca and Binance a year ago were discussed. Although the bear market in encryption is a potential reason for the slow start of the plan, another reason is that the encryption game industry is still in its infancy. Therefore, Animoca is preparing to launch a new fund of 2 billion dollars for later investment in the meta universe. " />

The program aims to incubate BNBChain based games. The companies that received the investment were Heroes of Mavia, Community Gaming and Tatsumeeko, crypto game start-ups. From January to June this year, the three raised $5.5 million, $16 million and $7.5 million respectively. A person directly familiar with the matter said that these rounds of investment were not carried out through joint investment plans. This is reasonable, because Heroes of Mavia is built on Ethereum, Tatsumeeko is built on Ethereum and Solana, while CommunityGaming is not a game, but a platform that provides e-sports infrastructure.

When asked about the progress of the plan, the spokesman of Animoca stressed that Animoca and Binance had made six "joint investments" in BlinkMoon, CryptoSlam, AvocadoGuild, GuildFi, Game and LiveArtX, but with some possible exceptions, these did not seem to be part of the $200 million plan. The game guild AvocadoGuild and GuildFi raised funds before the program was launched; CryptoSlam is a data aggregator BNB chain of NFT data aggregator data aggregator; LiveArtX is a digital art trading and discovery website; Gamee was acquired by Animoca in 2020. It was not until February this year that BinanceLabs obtained strategic funds. Only game studios. BlinkMoon may meet the planned criteria.

Gwendolyn Regina, BNBChain's investment director, told TheBlock that Web3 games were still "a fairly emerging field", although AxieInfinity and TheSandbox waited for the game to be relatively successful. "Without solid infrastructure and tools, we cannot create excellent game projects." She added. The joint investment plan seems to have been adjusted accordingly.

"At the beginning, the fund had a mission, but we allowed it to expand to other areas, such as associations that we think support the game ecosystem, because it is meaningful. We have invested and continue to cooperate, so considering the events in 2022, the investment may be slower than expected," Regina said. She further said that Animoca and BNBChain have been cooperating all the time and "often share opinions, transaction processes and cooperation opportunities in the ecosystems of both sides", but she added that she "cannot disclose the full extent of our cooperation".

Another noteworthy cooperation between Binance and Animoca is that AxieInfinity development company SkyMavis raised $150 million in April. SkyMavis lost $540 million in serious hacking. The Block later revealed that the investment scale of Binance in this round of financing was significantly reduced - in any case, this did not meet the criteria of the joint investment plan.

2、 "Large scale adoption of cryptocurrency"

When announcing this news, Regina of BNBChain wrote in a blog post that "large-scale real life use cases make it one of the core focus areas for large-scale adoption of cryptocurrency, enabling retail investors to enter Web3." The plan is part of BNBChain's US $1 billion growth plan, of which US $100 million is used for joint investment with Heihe and Animoca, and Animoca also invests US $100 million.

AnimocaBrands is probably the most active crypto game investor on the Internet. The company's hundreds of investment projects include The Sandbox, DapperLabs and StarAtlas. Although the cooperation between Animoca and Binance has temporarily stopped, Animoca is still very active. In the first half of this year, Hong Kong based companies made more than 60 investments. According to the situation. As of September, The Block Research had made 340 investments.

Last week, Yat Siu, the co-founder and CEO of AnimocaBrands, in an interview, the company planned to launch a fund of up to 2 billion dollars, AnimocaCapital, which is expected to make the first investment next year in the later stage of investment in the meta universe business. The target financing amount of the Fund is US $1-2 billion, but the target financing amount is US $1-2 billion. YatSiu said it had not raised funds.

summary

To sum up, the reasons for the slow progress of the $200 million chain game investment plan launched by Animoca and Binance a year ago were discussed. Although the bear market in encryption is a potential reason for the slow start of the plan, another reason is that the encryption game industry is still in its infancy. Therefore, Animoca is preparing to launch a new fund of 2 billion dollars for later investment in the meta universe.