True Global Ventures 4 Plus Follow On Fund’s First Investment is in Web3 Leader Animoca Brands
The True Global Ventures 4 Plus base fund and the new TGV 4 Plus Follow On Fund have both invested into Animoca Brands alongside Boyu Capital, Temasek, and others
True Global Ventures 4 Plus (TGV 4 Plus) Fund and TGV 4 Plus Follow On Fund (TGV 4 Plus FoF) today announce a US$17.2m convertible note investment into Animoca Brands out of a total raise of US$110m.
Other investors include Boyu Capital, Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Temasek and GGV Capital. The investment comes after Animoca Brands’ second closing at a valuation of US$5.9 billion (based on Australian dollar exchange rates at the time), announced on July 12, 2022.
The current investment is to further support Animoca Brands’ mission to deliver digital property rights to the world’s gamers and Internet users, thereby creating a new asset class, play-to-earn economies, and a more equitable digital framework contributing to the building of the open metaverse.
TGV has been an early backer of Animoca Brands since early 2019 and has seen it achieve unicorn status in May 2021. Animoca Brands has derived much of its growth in value from the revenues of its blockchain projects and subsidiaries, as well as the over 340 investments it has made in the open metaverse.
Besides Animoca Brands, the TGV 4 Plus base fund has also invested in other leading companies such as The Sandbox (a subsidiary of Animoca Brands), Forge, Chromaway, Coinhouse, GCEX, Chronicled, Enjinstarter, Iomob and Dedoco and others.
Today’s announcement marks the first investment made by the new TGV 4 Plus FoF, which focuses on investing a majority of its capital into selected TGV 4 Plus base fund companies. TGV 4 Plus Follow On Fund will consider making additional investments in other late stage web3 deals as the opportunities arise.
The TGV 4 Plus FoF completed its first closing in June 2022 for US$146m. TGV 4 Plus FoF has 15 General Partners (GP) who lead the fund and its Investment Committee, investing more than US$62m of their money into the fund. This represents a total GP commitment of over 40% of the total fund size and over US$4m per GP on average.
Yat Siu, the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, commented: “We are honored that the TGV 4 Plus Follow On Fund has chosen Animoca Brands as its first investment and are deeply grateful for TGV’s continued support. Thanks to the shared network effect of the open metaverse, the funding of late stage companies like us also provides a boost to early stage growth, so we believe this is a positive development for the entire ecosystem.”
TGV General Partner, Dušan Stojanović, added, “I’m impressed by the number and quality of strategic acquisitions and investments that Animoca Brands has made. It is one of the big winners of the market correction, and is likely to emerge stronger from this down market similarly to how companies like Amazon emerged from the Dotcom crash.”
“I’m happy to see the underlying business traction in the overall web3 ecosystem, led by many of Animoca Brands initiatives. I’m also thrilled by the new senior management appointments who will complement the existing strong management team that will take the company to the next level,” said TGV General Partner, Kelly Choo.
“Current market conditions offer many challenges but also opportunities. It is during these challenging times when the true leaders of the web3 space will emerge. There is no finer example of this than Yat Siu and the Animoca team. We at True Global Ventures are delighted to be able to continue to support their growth”, concluded Valerie Hawley, Affiliate Partner, True Global Ventures 4+.
