M2 MONITOR: Jan 21, 2022
This week’s top news:
- Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard in largest all cash deal in history at $68.7 billion
- Animoca Brands raises $358 million to fund open metaverse vision
- Frost Giant Studios raises $25 million to make Unreal Engine 5 RTS
- Mythical Games acquires metaverse streaming platform Polystream
- Meta gives grant to Godot Game Engine
INDUSTRY NEWS FOR THE WEEK OF JAN 21, 2022
Animoca Brands raises $358.8M at a $5B valuation for NFT games and open metaverse
Dream Games raises $255m at $2.75bn valuation
Ex-StarCraft and Warcraft Devs Raise $25 Million to Make an Unreal Engine 5 RTS
Lit Protocol raises $2.2M to use NFTs for decentralized access passes
Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard in a deal at $68.7 billion
Mythical Games acquires metaverse streaming platform Polystream
Nas Joins $20MM Round For African Mobile-Game Publisher Carry1st
nDreams reveals new Studio Elevation for AAA and VR titles
Netflix responds to Microsoft’s Planned Acquisition of Acivision Blizzard
Stillfront announces intention to acquire 100% of 6Waves for $201M
Turkey’s Spyke raises $55M in a seed round to bring a social twist to casual mobile games
Animoca Brands raises US$358m to fund open metaverse visionGoogle Labs starts up a blockchain division
NFT protocol Metaplex raises $46M to expand gaming and metaverse applications
Nike launches Nikeland experience in New York City in collaboration with Roblox
Walmart appears to be entering the metaverse space
INDUSTRY NEWS FOR THE WEEK OF JAN 21, 2022
| DATE | TYPE | COMPANY | INVESTORS – ACQUIRERS | AMOUNT (M) | CATEGORY | FOCUS | CITY |
| 1/15/22 | Investment | GXC | KNET Investment Partners, Korea Development Bank,Tiger Asset Management Discretionary Invest, Vision-Creator, Megazone | $9.1 | Games | Ecosystem Platform | Jeju |
| 1/17/22 | Acquisition | Rainbow Arts | Ziggurat Interactive | – | Games | Retro Games | Gütersloh |
| 1/17/22 | Contest | Achievement Unblocked | United Esports, Dfinity Foundation | $10.0 | Games | Developers | |
| 1/17/22 | Investment | nCore | Animoca Brands, Galaxy Interactive, Polygon, Hyperedge Capital, angel investors | $10.0 | Games | ||
| 1/17/22 | Investment | Spyke Games | Griffin Gaming Partners | $55.0 | Games | Mobile | Istanbul |
| 1/18/22 | Acquisition | ActivisionBlizzard | Microsoft | $69,700.0 | Games | Publisher | Los Angeles |
| 1/18/22 | Investment | Dream Games | Index Ventures, Makers Fund, IVP, BlackRock, Kora, Balderton Capital | $255.0 | Games | Mobile | Istanbul |
| 1/18/22 | Acquisition | Polystream | Mythical Games | – | Metaverse | Cloud Streaming | Guildford |
| 1/18/22 | Investment | Games | Liberty City Ventures, 10t Holdings, C Ventures, Delta Fund, Gemini Frontier Fund, Gobi Partners Greater Bay Area, Kingsway, L2 Capital, Mirae Asset, Pacific Century Group, ParaFi Capital, Provident, Senator Investment Group, Sequoia China, Smile Group, Stable Asset Management, Soros Fund Management, Wildcat Capital Management, Winklevoss Capital, others | $358.8 | Metaverse | Games | Hong Kong |
| 1/18/22 | Investment | Lit Ptotocol | Collab+Currency, Sfermion, CMT Digital, Crowdcreate, G1 Ventures, Gumi Cryptos Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Lattice Capital, LongHash Ventures, Protocol Labs, Shima Capital, Tribe Capital, angel investors | $2.2 | Metaverse | Open-source NFT platform | San Francisco |
| 1/19/22 | Investment | Apprentice.io | Silverton Partners, Pacific Western Bank, Insight Partners, Colorcon Ventures, Alkeon Capital | $100.0 | AR | Medical | Jersey City |
| 1/19/22 | Acquisition | Moxion | Autodesk | – | VFX | Cloud Platform | Auckland |
| 1/20/22 | Grant | Godot Engine | Meta | – | Games | Tools | Brooklyn |
| 1/20/22 | Investment | IndiGG | Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Variant Fund, Play Ventures Dune Ventures, Jump Capital others | $6.0 | Games | NFT Games | Quezon |
| 1/20/22 | Investment | Infinity Force | Animoca Brands, Jump Capital, Sky Vision Capital, OKex Blockdream Ventures, MEXC, others | $5.5 | Games | Platform for play-to-earn | Singapore |
| 1/20/22 | Investment | Enjinstarter | True GLobal Ventures 4 Plus (TGV4), | $3.0 | Games | Blockchain | Singapore |
| 1/20/22 | Investment | Carry1st | Andreessen Horowitz, Nas, Axie Infinity, Yield Guild Games, Chipper Cash, others | $20.0 | Games | Publisher | Cape Town |
| 1/21/22 | Acquisition | 6Waves | Stillfront | $201.0 | Games | Mobile | Hong Kong |
| Source: M2 Insights | |||||||
