Animoca Brands Corporation Ltd has led a $2 million seed round of funding for sci-fi media brand Wanderers – the brand behind Wanderers NFTs – alongside blockchain-focused venture capital firm GameFi Ventures.
Animoca Brands has styled itself as a global leader in gamification and blockchain technology, with a large portfolio of more than 380 Web3 investments including blockchain NFTs, games, trading platforms and interactive fitness applications.
Wanderers claims to have built a recognisable intellectual property (IP) worth millions, having achieved in excess of US$17.5 million in NFT trading volume and sold more than US$4.9 million in NFTs.
The company now intends to leverage its IP with short films, publishing stories and live events based on its NFT collection.
“Prime example of innovation”
“Wanderers is a prime example of innovation in IP,” Animoca Brands Corporation executive chair and co-founder Yat Siu said.
“The brand succeeds thanks to its art, storytelling and dedicated community of fans, and its NFTs are an excellent entry point into a universe of gaming, music and entertainment.”
The Wanderer brand places a strong emphasis on storytelling; the company originally began as a collection of writers, musicians and developers collaborating under founder Nick Greenawal to produce an NFT library.
The company now intends to incorporate its NFT collection into that storytelling, calling on NFT-holders to pitch why their personal characters should appear in the company’s next film.
“As a fan of sci-fi movies growing up, it’s incredible to now be building a multimedia universe full of characters and stories,” Wanderers founder Nick Greenawalt said.
“We’re blurring the line between web2 and web3, growing from stories and JPEGs into films, music, and gaming. I’m really excited to see how the community reacts to all we have coming.”
NFT-holders have lauded the functionality of the Wanderer’s ecosystem on twitter, stating: “The universe that Nick is creating with The Wanderers is jam-packed with utility. The same utility I get while watching Star Wars, but I’m part of the story.”