The Sandbox, a leading metaverse platform operated by Animoca Brands’ subsidiary Bacasable Global Limited, has successfully raised $20 million in a recent funding round. Valued at $1 billion, the funding was secured through convertible promissory notes, allowing investors to convert their notes into equity under the same terms as existing preference shares. The round was led by Kingsway Capital, with participation from LG Tech Ventures and True Global Ventures.

Funding to Boost Creator Economy and Platform Enhancements

The newly acquired funds will be channeled towards expanding The Sandbox’s creator economy and developing its decentralized mobile metaverse platform, set to launch in 2025. Key improvements will include new social features, enhanced avatar skills, and upgrades to the Game Maker and VoxEdit 3D editing tools. Additionally, The Sandbox plans to roll out a new multiplayer rules system, expected to enter beta later this year and launch fully by 2025.

Growth Amidst Bear Market

Despite the challenging market conditions following the 2022-23 bear market, The Sandbox has shown remarkable growth. Since the Alpha version of The Sandbox launched in November 2023, over 1,000 user-generated experiences have been created on the platform. The Sandbox now boasts 5.7 million user accounts linked to cryptocurrency wallets and has added over 330,000 unique creators who have downloaded the no-code Game Maker in the past year.

A New Era for User-Generated Content

Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu highlighted the unique value proposition of The Sandbox, contrasting it with popular games like Minecraft and Roblox, which do not offer digital property rights to users. Siu described The Sandbox as “the evolution of UGC games for the age of digital ownership.”

Metaverse Industry Outlook

While many metaverse projects have struggled to maintain user engagement, The Sandbox’s continued expansion underscores its resilience. Investment management firm McKinsey projects that the metaverse economy could grow to $5 trillion by 2030, despite the mixed results seen by other major players in the industry, such as Meta’s $1.2 billion metaverse project, which saw minimal daily users in 2022.

As The Sandbox continues to innovate and expand, it remains a beacon of growth and potential within the evolving metaverse landscape.