Japan-based entertainment company Akatsuki today announced the establishment of Emoote, a US$20 million fund that is focused on Web3 investment.
Based in Singapore, Emoote aims to invest in Asia which is considered as an important market for Web3 companies. However, the firm stated that it will continue to maintain a “global mindset.” It is also looking for Web3 companies that are able to collaborate with Japanese entertainment and media companies.
“We focus on early stage investing that includes seed capital, mainly in Asia (50 per cent) and the US (40 per cent), with the remainder in other regions (10 per cent),” the company stated.
Since September 2021, Emoote has invested in more than 20 projects that including STEPN (a move-to-earn lifestyle app that was one of the most-watched projects in 2022 with a fully diluted valuation of US$20 billion in April) and BreederDAO (a GameFi NFT factory that creates and sells NFTs to game guilds. It has counted Andreessen Horowitz and Delphi Digital as co-lead investors).
There are three focus areas that the firm is aiming for: Web3 applications of tokens, Web3 IP creation as well as NFT and digital fashion.
“We believe that digital fashion is likely to surpass physical fashion as a business as people increasingly spend more time in the virtual world – not only with entertainment that includes games, but also with other digital activities such as social media and metaverses – where physical constraints are removed,” it said.
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Akatsuki is a maker of popular smartphone games based in Japan and Taiwan. With an emphasis on characters and stories, the company has developed games and other media such as comics and anime.
The establishment of Emoote was not the firm’s first foray into Web3. Through the AET Fund and Heart Driven Fund, it has invested in startups in the US, India, and Japan.
“An important keyword in Web3 is the incentive economy. This refers to an ecosystem that rewards contributors, as exemplified by the play-to-earn concept where users are contributors that earn by playing games,” it stated.
“We believe that NFT consumption, based on ’emotional values’ such as ‘likes’ and ’empathy,’ is a very important mechanism that will provide the motivation upon which tokenomics can grow soundly in order to achieve sustainable growth of the token-centered economic zone. Further, we believe that Web3 will lead to even greater growth of Entertainment and Creator, which has created characters and media works that are loved around the world.”
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Image Credit: Akatsuki
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