Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands was founded in 2014 and listed on the ASX in 2015, initially a mobile-game studio before pivoting fully into blockchain and NFTs from 2017.

In 2018 it acquired Pixowl, developer of The Sandbox, seeding the metaverse platform that became its flagship Web3 asset.

In 2020 Animoca was delisted by the ASX over its crypto exposure, becoming private and reframing itself as a Web3 investment and gaming conglomerate.

During the 2021 NFT boom it raised funds lifting its valuation to US$2.2 billion, then a 2022 round pushed the private valuation to US$5.9 billion.

In 2023 Saudi NEOM invested US$50 million strategically, deepening Animoca's Middle East expansion amid the bear market.

In 2025 Animoca pursued a US relisting via reverse merger, with post-deal valuations cited around US$6–9.2 billion,重回 mainstream capital markets.

On September 21, 2026, Animoca's reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed Currenc Group was called off, shelving the US listing that had been targeted for year-end; the company says it is still pursuing other routes to market and is completing its FY2024 audit. Currenc secured $1.5 million in convertible bridge financing in September to support the deal.

5 million registered wallets, and in May saw Alpha Compute acquire 60% of GAMEE at an implied $18 million valuation. The NUVA marketplace built with NUVA Labs launched on Ethereum in May with institutional assets from Figure Technologies, and the company obtained a VASP licence from Dubai's VARA during the year.

For Animoca Brands the binding constraint on listing is disclosure, not valuation: after leaving the ASX in 2020 it must close the fiscal 2024 audit to meet Nasdaq's PCAOB auditor and ongoing reporting standards, and the three routes differ mainly in time cost. Deal flow has not slowed — 19 startup investments in the first half of 2026, a June stake in stablecoin payments firm AllScale, whose infrastructure supported more than 1.5 million wallets, and the May transfer of 60% of GAMEE to Alpha Compute at an implied USD 18 million, pruning the portfolio. With tokenised equities up 390.4% this year, NUVA and the Dubai licence are its route into Middle East distribution.

Yat Siu is co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands. Born in Vienna and self-taught, he worked at Atari in Germany, founded Outblaze in 1998, moved part of the team and assets to IBM in 2009 and spun out Animoca Brands in 2014.

Evan Auyang is group president. A Brown graduate in economics and political science with a Kellogg MBA, he structured derivatives at Citi, was an associate partner at McKinsey, deputy managing director at KMB and a lead at GLG, taking his current role in October 2021. Robby Yung is CEO of the investment line: he co-founded One Media Group, became Animoca's first CEO in 2014, and now runs investments and the Animoca Capital fund. Minh Do is COO, a former Linklaters lawyer who later ran GLG in Greater China and built the global organisation, now covering people and cross-region operations. Shaun Kraft is CFO, previously in banking at Lazard and Perella Weinberg and CFO at MoneyHero and CMCC Global. People and finance report to the two function heads.

Animoca Brands has seen frequent team changes recently. In June 2026, Shaun Kraft joined as CFO, succeeding Jared Shaw; Chief Business Officer Alan Lau also left in June. Additionally, researcher hoidya, Director of Emerging Markets Leigh Travers, AI staff Tom H, Portfolio GTM Icey Liu, and Lead Product Manager Prakhar A. departed between March and May 2026.

According to online sources, Jared Shaw and Alan Lau did not completely leave but transitioned to strategic advisor and Chairman of GROW Digital Wealth respectively; meanwhile, Brian Chan was promoted to Chief Development Officer. Overall, the company is adjusting its leadership to focus on AI and RWA.