A funding $93 million was raised in a funding round by the Sandbox, a gaming platform based in Hong Kong that gives the opportunity to its users to build a virtual world using non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and its investors include Japan’s SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, the company has informed.

It was just about a year that the company had raised funds through its last funding round even as the monthly active users of the company grew has grown steadily and has surpassed $144 million in transaction volume on the platform.

This is also the first occasion that an investment in a company that issues its own cryptocurrency has been made by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.

The Sandbox, which is majority owned by blockchain game company Animoca Brands, enables players to create, control, and sell virtual gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain. It grants artists ownership as NFTs and gives tools for creating items on the network.

It has announced collaborations with companies and celebrities, like musician Snoop Dogg, who will build a digital duplicate of his estate in the Sandbox’s metaverse.

The corporation refuses to divulge its worth, but the Sandbox coin, which it backs, has a market cap of about $2 billion. According to the firm, it presently holds around 22% of the tokens.

There has been a more that 200 per cent rise in the price of the coin since the announcement by Facebook that last week it would change its name to Meta Platforms Inc which raised interest of investors for firms that build metaverse gaming experience.

The concept of a shared virtual platform that its users would be able to access through different devices and where the users can very easily and conveniently traverse through various digital environments has come to be known as metaverse.

According to Sebastien Borget, chief operating officer and co-founder, the latest investment in the company will be helpful in driving the growth of the Sandbox economy of the creators as it expands from gaming into fashion, architecture and virtual concerts.

“We are creating this open metaverse. We are positioning the Sandbox against those giant tech companies who are claiming the metaverse to be theirs, offering an alternative where users are first,” said Borget.

SoftBank has spearheaded a succession of fundings in NFT-related startups this year, taking benefit of the NFT market’s exponential expansion.

Candy Digital, a sports NFT firm, and Sorare, an NFT fantasy soccer game, are two of the companies in which the firm has made an investment in recent times.

(Adapted from EconomicTimes.com)