Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_620a848d47e60" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>A Guild Accelerator Program will provide up to $500,000 for each early-stage startup selected</li>
 <li>Crypto-focused gaming grew exponentially over the last 12 months, and market players expect it to continue this year and further crypto adoption</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



The Sandbox’s parent company, Animoca Brands, has partnered with venture accelerator Brinc to launch its Guild Accelerator Program and expand the global play-to-earn ecosystem.



The two companies will provide a total investment of up to $30 million over the next two years in increments of $500,000 or less for each early-stage group accepted into its <a href="https://www.brinc.io/guild/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">program</a>.



The program aims to help millions of people globally generate income by participating in the play-to-earn (P2E) gaming world through crypto gaming.



Priority will go to applicants committed to sustainability, including projects that “support and give back to player/scholar communities, place emphasis on energy-efficient proof-of-stake protocols and side chains, and have lower overall physical footprints,” according to the announcement.



Brinc closed a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brinc-closes-us130m-funding-led-by-animoca-brands-to-launch-web-3-0-focused-accelerators-and-fuel-global-expansion-301444835.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$130 million funding raise</a> led by Animoca Brands two months ago, aiming to focus on expanding its accelerator programs.



“Web3-enabled guilds provide an on-ramp for the future of earning in a way that Web2 and traditional industries never could,” Manav Gupta, founder and CEO of Brinc, said in the release. “Guilds can help transform education, skill development, agriculture, R&amp;D and almost any industry where access to tools and assets historically prevented anyone with time to innovate, up-skill and thus earn a living.”



Animoca incubates and backs NFT, blockchain gaming and metaverse projects as well as supports development on blockchains including Flow and Polygon. It has previously backed over 150 NFT- and metaverse-related companies, including OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Axie Infinity and Yield Guild Games. Last month, the firm raised <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/the-sandbox-parent-animoca-brands-raises-359m-to-build-out-open-metaverse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$358 million</a> to build out the open metaverse.



“As the world enters a new era of work and play, the play-to-earn guilds space has enormous potential for growth,” Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, said in a statement.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“The management of digital assets in games and in the open metaverse represents a significant source of income for hundreds of millions of people,” Siu commented.</blockquote>



In general, crypto-focused gaming grew exponentially over the last 12 months, and market players expect it to continue this year and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/2022-prediction-gaming-will-lead-to-further-crypto-adoption/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">further crypto adoption</a>.



The popular P2E game Axie Infinity initially anticipated an “aggressive target” of 250,000 users by the end of the year but finished 2021 over 1,000% higher at 2.9 million community members, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/axie-infinity-program-lead-2022-will-be-all-about-gameplay/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. By the end of 2021, the game’s total revenue reached about $1.3 billion, compared to $18.8 million six months earlier.



Separately, capital flowed into the P2E gaming space over the past few months with initiatives like Mechanism Capital’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/mechanism-capital-launches-100m-fund-focused-on-p2e-gaming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$100 million fund</a> and a joint fund, also <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=gaming#:~:text=GameStop%2C%20Immutable%20to%20Launch%20%24100M%20Joint%20Fund%20for%20Gaming%20NFTs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$100 million</a>, announced by GameStop and Immutable for gaming NFTs (non-fungible tokens).



Animoca Brands and Brinc were not available for comment Monday.



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