The Sandbox raised $20 million at a $1 billion valuation

The new capital will be used to upgrade, improve several features and develop a decentralized metaverse platform for mobile devices.

The Sandbox (SAND), a metaverse platform, has raised 20 million USD at a valuation of 1 billion USD with the goal of upgrading and improving the user-generated content (UGC) platform.

According to the press release, the funding round was led by Kingsway Capital and Animoca Brands, with investment participation from LG Tech Ventures and True Global Ventures.

Part of the newly raised capital will be used by the project team to develop a decentralized metaverse for mobile devices, expected to launch in 2025. The Sandbox will also update new versions of its tools Game Maker and 3D editor.

The Sandbox is a long-known metaverse project in the cryptocurrency market, and was heavily invested in at the end of 2021, when the metaverse development trend was at its peak. The project called for $93 million in capital from SoftBank in November 2021, was sometimes valued at up to $4 billion, and established partnerships with many major brands and government organizations, including Adidas and Warner Music. , Gucci, HSBC and DBS banks, TIME magazine, Playboy and the governments of Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, shared about his decision to invest in The Sandbox:

"Global management consulting firm McKinsey estimates that by 2030, the metaverse could contribute an additional $5 trillion to the world economy. Today, games like Minecraft and Roblox are some of the popular titles world, but they do not provide users with ownership of digital assets. The Sandbox represents the evolution of UGC games for the age of digital ownership."

The latest capital mobilization of 20 million USD only meets the goal of 400 million USD with a valuation of 4 billion USD that they set for 2022. The last time The Sandbox called for capital was in November 2021, raising received 93 million USD from many large organizations, including SoftBank.

The Sandbox has 5.7 million user accounts connected to crypto wallets and more than 1,000 UGC has been built since launching a $35 million fund for game development projects in November 2023.

The Sandbox's SAND price immediately after the news increased by more than 4% from 0.47 - 0.49 USD, however this is also the "stable" price range of this token in the past month.