Animoca Brands Japan invests in Virtual Arts
16 February 2023 - Animoca Brands Japan, a strategic subsidiary of Animoca Brands Corporation Limited ("Animoca Brands"), today announced that it has invested in Virtual Arts, Inc to support Virtual Arts' expansion in Japan and to provide content for DanceFight, a dance battle app published by Virtual Arts for the street dance community globally, with bracket-style tournaments, crowd and celebrity judge voting, and more.
Virtual Arts is creating the new home for skill-based talents, with its first experience being the DanceFight app, in which dancers record their signature dance moves and compete in one-versus-one battles, tournaments, and leagues with other epic dancers. Starting in May, dancers will be able to tap an “ANIMATE” button in DanceFight to transform themselves into dancing avatars to compete in bracket-style tournaments with crowd voting and prizes.
Animoca Brands previously invested in Virtual Arts. Together with Animoca Brands and Virtual Arts, Animoca Brands Japan will continue to work closely with athletes and artists to create a Web3 world in which they and their portfolio companies can give these creators the recognition and rewards they deserve.
Kyoya Okazawa, co-founder of Animoca Brands Japan, commented: “We are pleased to have the opportunity to invest in Virtual Arts, a company that has already been supported by our parent company Animoca Brands. We will continue to work with our head office to invest in the Web3 space to foster the growth of companies contributing to the Web3 ecosystem. We believe that we will be able to accelerate Japan's transition to Web3 by working with our headquarters to identify companies from around the world that have opportunities in Japan. Animoca Brands Japan will continue to do its utmost to contribute to the expansion of the Animoca Brands ecosystem.”
Rich Sloan, co-founder and co-CEO of Virtual Arts, commented: “Our mission is to provide a mobile video platform for talented individuals around the world and put them in the global spotlight. We will be adding new features, transforming dance videos into avatars, and providing content in the Web3 space.
“The investment from Animoca Brands Japan will help us to bring our platform to the Japanese market and connect with Japanese street dancers, whose talents have been gaining worldwide attention. We will work with Animoca Brands Japan to create a society in which talent is rewarded for their contributions through solutions that Web3 uniquely makes possible.”
About Virtual Arts Inc., makers of DanceFight
The venture-backed mobile app company Virtual Arts Inc. is the creator of DanceFight - the home for talent and the leading competition platform for skill-based, head-to-head video competition. The company is focusing initially on dance but will rapidly expand to support all forms of competition content, including singing, rap, skateboarding, and other action sports. For more information about Virtual Arts, visit: https://virtualarts.fun. For more information about DanceFight and to download the app, visit: https://dancefightapp.com and DanceFight’s Instagram to get inspired by the incredible community of dancers there.
About Animoca Brands Japan
Founded in 2021, Animoca Brands Japan (corporate name: Animoca Brands K.K.) is the strategic subsidiary in Japan of Animoca Brands Corporation Limited, a leading global Web3 company. Animoca Brands Japan was established to support the global Web3 strategies of Japanese intellectual property and content holders such as major publishers, brands, education, sports teams, athletes, artists and game companies. Animoca Brands Japan provides a platform that combines IPs with blockchain technology, and supports IP holders to build their own ecosystem in through a full stack of Web3 services, providing a bridge between Japanese IPs and global fans. For more information, please visit https://www.animocabrands.co.jp
Contact: pr-abkk@animocabrands.com
About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands, a Deloitte Tech Fast winner and ranked in the Financial Times list of High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2021, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights and contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse. The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E. It has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Animoca Brands Japan, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, Notre Game, TinyTap, Be Media, PIXELYNX, and WePlay Media. Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 380 Web3 investments, including Colossal, Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or follow on Twitter or Facebook.
Contact: press@animocabrands.com