ASX Release
2 November 2018
Animoca Brands invests in Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties
Highlights:
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Animoca Brands invests in Series A financing for Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties
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Dapper Labs raised US$15m in the round from investors that include Venrock, GV, Samsung NEXT, Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and others
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Animoca Brands is the China distributor for CryptoKitties
Animoca Brands Corporation Limited (ASX:AB1, the “Company”) is pleased to advise that it has participated in a Series A financing into Dapper Labs Inc. (“Dapper Labs”), the company behind the world's first and most successful consumer blockchain product, CryptoKitties. The round, totalling US$15 million, was led by Venrock, with participation from GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Samsung NEXT, among others.
The amount invested by the Company was not material. Additional investors included CoinFund, Matt Bellamy, the lead singer of Muse, June Fund, HOF Capital, John Pfeffer, and GBIC. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, SV Angel, Digital Currency Group, William Mougayar, Hex Capital, and Rising Tide Fund also participated in the financing. To date, Dapper Labs has raised a total of US$27.85 million.
CryptoKitties is the world’s most used consumer blockchain application, outside of exchanges, with 3.2 million transactions and tens of millions of dollars transacted on the platform. The game launched in late 2017 to showcase the potential of blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies: by focusing on games and entertainment, CryptoKitties helped to introduce mainstream users to blockchain products and technology.
Animoca Brands is the exclusive mobile distributor of CryptoKitties in Greater China and receives a share of revenue generated in the region (see ASX release dated 25 January 2018). Additionally, the Company negotiated a license for multinational consumer electronics company HTC to publish and promote CryptoKitties on HTC phones, including HTC’s U12+ flagship mobile device (see ASX announcement of 12 July 2018).
Roham Gharegozlou, the CEO of Dapper Labs, commented: “The evolution of true digital ownership and the interoperability of smart contracts creates new ways for consumers, creators, and platform providers to interact completely peer-to-peer, with no middlemen,” said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO at Dapper Labs. “Our mission at Dapper Labs is to use games and entertainment to bring the values of decentralization to billions of consumers worldwide. This round of financing was about getting the right partners around the table to bring compelling content to the blockchain – and make sure usability and infrastructure allow for adoption by mainstream consumers.”
Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, noted: “We’re very pleased to see strong support for our strategic partner Dapper Labs, and we are humbled to be included among such esteemed investors. CryptoKitties is a pioneer in blockchain games, and represents an important step toward our vision of widely used cross-platform non-fungible tokens.”
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About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands (ASX: AB1) leverages gamification, blockchain, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of mobile products including games such as The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes as well as products based on popular intellectual properties such as Garfield, Thomas & Friends™, Ever After High and Doraemon. Animoca Brands is the exclusive China distributor of CryptoKitties. The Company is based in Hong Kong, Canada, and Finland. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or get updates by following Animoca Brands on Facebook, Twitter or Google +.