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Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang

, Original Author: Suvashree Ghosh & Zheping Huang

Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang

Animoca Brands Corp. hopes to raise about $1 billion this quarter for its new Web3 and Metaverse investment fund, sharply scaling back its fundraising ambitions amid the current crypto bear market.

Animoca Capital co-founder and Animoca Brands CEO Yat Siu said in a chat with Bloomberg's Twitter Spaces in Hong Kong on Thursday that Animoca Capital is in talks with potential investors and will use the funds to support blockchain and the Metaverse Startups.

For Animoca Capital, "the goal is the first quarter (to complete the fundraising), and then we'll see," Siu said. "It's a challenging market, arguably. But we're quite interested." It added that market instability could mean that the final capital raised was slightly lower than the target amount.expressIn an interview with Nikkei last November, Siu

express

, which plans to launch a fund of up to $2 billion, Animoca Capital, to invest in metaverse businesses, describing the planned fund as a "good entry point for Web3 businesses." It is reported that Animoca Capital expects to make its first investment in 2023. The fund is targeting a size of $1 billion to $2 billion, but Yat Siu said it has yet to raise capital. Additionally, the fund will be launched with Homer Sun, a former Morgan Stanley executive.The fallout from the FTX incident and the global economic slowdown has made fundraising more difficult, but Siu remains optimistic that capital and interest in cryptocurrencies remains. Several subsidiaries of Sequoia-backed Animoca even raised capital during the cycle of FTX’s crash, Siu said, without naming the companies or their valuations.Animoca Brands has stakes in more than 380 companies and currently has no plans to raise further capital, Siu added. Animoca Brands confirmed last September that it had

Secured $110 million in financing

, with participation from Temasek, Boyu Capital and GGV Capital. Animoca said it will use the new capital to continue funding strategic acquisitions, investments and product development, license popular intellectual property, and advance "open virtual worlds," including through efforts to facilitate digital property rights for online users. The financing brings Animoca Brands' total funding to date to more than $600 million. The company's focus is on developing an ecosystem of complementary crypto companies building what's known as Web3 - the next iteration of a loosely defined web with fewer intermediaries and more direct interactions between users and service and content providers .