Animoca Brands participates in Psychic VR Lab’s $7.8 million fundraising

Animoca Brands Japan, an investment subsidiary of game developer Animoca Brands, has poured JP¥100 million ($780k) into VR and XR company Psychic VR Labs. The investment is part of Psychic’s $7.8 million funding round obtained in December 2022. 

Psychic VR Labs is a Japanese market leader in XR (extended reality) experiences. The company developed the creative XR platform STYLY, which is used by over 50,000 global artists. STYLY is essentially a fashion VR shopping service. Since its release, the platform has reached over 5 million downloads. 

The funding also represents Animoca Brands’ goal in Japan of developing a Web3 ecosystem via partnerships and the “Real Metaverse” through STYLY.

“We believe that the evolution of technology in the XR / Web3 field will not only change the structure of modern society but will also fundamentally change people’s lifestyles as a movement of world creation in the history of mankind. We hope to play a great role in this major turning point of history,”

CEO of Psychic VR Labs, Masahiro Yamaguchi stated. 

Animoca Brands Japan and Psychic VR Lab previously worked together for an XR NFT art exhibition at NFT NYC last year. 

In other fundraising news, film and moviegoing experience platform MoviePass Inc announced yesterday a seed funding round led by Animoca Brands, with participation from Calrital Capital, Emerald Plus, Gaingels, Harlem Capital, PKO VC, and Sandhill Angels. Animoca Brands’ co-founder Yat Siu will join the board of MoviePass. 

The funds will be used to continue developing the beta version of its theater subscription service and VR cinema experiences. 

In November, Animoca Brands announced plans to launch Animoca Capital – a metaverse and NFT-focused venture fund. While it originally planned to raise $2 billion, after FTX’s collapse, the number dropped to $1 billion.