Hong Kong-headquartered open metaverse company Animoca Brands has acquired a majority stake in the music and gaming startup Pixelynx through its controlled subsidiary.
The transactions details remain undisclosed.
Through this deal, Animoca aims to build, invest in and acquire studios, infrastructure and technologies that will power the future of the music industry through integration with gaming and Web3 technologies and communities.
Animoca Brands earlier invested in Pixelynx’s seed funding round in December 2021.
Los Angeles-based Pixelynx was founded in 2020 by musicians and technologists deadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman) and Richie Hawtin (Plastikman), along with music and gaming industry veterans Ben Turner, Dean Wilson, and Inder Phull.
It creates a physical and digital ecosystem for artists and fans by building products that blur the lines between music, gaming, and Web3. The ecosystem provides artists control over how they build experiences with fans, partners, and platforms to create new ways for music lovers to develop, share, and monetise music.
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The startup’s upcoming debut game Elynxir is a next-generation mobile gaming platform that will bring fans closer to their favourite artists through exclusive music content, in-game collectibles, and playable immersive experiences. It leverages advanced AR and geolocation for players to discover games, music, artists, collectibles, and community-made content.
Elynxir will be integrated into the Animoca ecosystem with an emphasis on interoperability, open standards, and new interactive audio-visual formats.
Pixelynx also operates LynxLabs, a new investment programme to develop the next wave of music and entertainment ventures by offering them access to funding, artists, celebrities, token design, and technical support.
The lab has already invested in Volta XR and Oorbit.
Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands, commented: “Pixelynx is one of the new wave of companies that are paving novel pathways for the music industry amid a major technological shift from centralised to decentralised ownership.”
Inder Phull, CEO of Pixelynx, commented: “Animoca Brands has established itself as a dominant player in building the shared vision of an open metaverse. This deal marks the beginning of a new era in the music industry in which Web3, gaming, and transmedia content will unlock new formats, revenue streams, and business models that support artists, fans, and labels.”
The global music revenue is expected to reach US$131 billion by 2030 (source: Goldman Sachs, 2022). From a strategic fit perspective, Animoca Brands and Pixelynx will focus on developing new formats of music consumption that can be scaled across the metaverse to unlock new revenue opportunities through the access that both companies have to a global network of platforms, infrastructure, and rights-holders in the field of entertainment.
On Wednesday, Nikkei Asia reported that Animoca Brands plans to set up a fund worth as much as US$2 billion to invest in metaverse businesses.
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