The Sandbox raises $93M to expand its NFT metaverse

The metaverse continues to be the next attraction of crypto for investors, with The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands and an unbreakable token (NFT) metaverse platform, raising fresh capital in a financial circle led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

Marking SoftBank Vision Fund 2’s first investment in the crypto assets, The Sandbox round B’s Series saw $ 93 million raised with the participation of Animoca Brands, True Global Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, SCB 10X, Polygon Studios and Samsung Next, among others.

According to the announcement, The Sandbox aims to accelerate the growth of its open metaverse with games, live performances and social experiences while “supporting more creators and involving more brands and intellectual properties.”

The game enables players to monetize their time spent in the metaverse in different ways, also known as the game-to-win model. It creates a circular economy where the resources collected by one category of players are sold and bought by another category of player or creator, the announcement says.

As an open metaverse based on NFT, The Sandbox is known for its partnerships with more than 165 brands – including Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, The Smurfs, Care Bears, Atari and CryptoKitties – “to create voxelized versions of their worlds and characters on Binance, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Socios, the Winklevoss twins and CoinMarketCap bought digital land in the metaverse of The Sandbox.

Sandbox CEO and co-founder Arthur Madrid shared the team’s plans to expand into fashion, architecture, virtual concerts and shows, art galleries, and museums. “We are developing an entire ecosystem that opens up new digital job opportunities for players and creators in our open NFT metaverse,” he added.

Related: Animoca Brands doubles valuation to $ 2.2B with a new $ 65M financial round

Aaron Wong, an investor at SoftBank Investment Advisers, explained that The Sandbox utilizes blockchain and decentralized management to give power and control to its users:

“We believe The Sandbox is building an open metaverse, unlocking new economic opportunities by empowering people to build and monetize their creations, from avatars and buildings to games and collections.”

Last month, parent company The Sandbox Animoca Brands, backed by video game giants like Ubisoft Entertainment, also raised $ 65 million in a new financial round, doubling its valuation to $ 2.2 billion.