Animoca Brands takes majority stake in music metaverse company PIXELYNX

LONDON & LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Animoca Brands Corporation Limited (“Animoca Brands”), the company advancing digital property rights for gaming and the open metaverse, has taken a majority stake in Pixelynx, Inc. (“PIXELYNX”) through its controlled subsidiary. PIXELYNX is a music metaverse gaming platform founded 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.

PIXELYNX is a Los-Angeles-based music and gaming entity operating across five countries. It is creating a physical and digital ecosystem for artists and fans by building products that blur the lines between music, gaming, and Web3 (a decentralized ecosystem based on blockchain technologies). PIXELYNX’s ecosystem will provide 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.

Animoca Brands has acquired a majority stake in PIXELYNX 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.

PIXELYNX operates LynxLabs, a new investment program to develop the next wave of music and entertainment ventures by offering them access to funding, artists, celebrities, token design, and technical support. LynxLabs has already invested into Volta XR and Oorbit.

PIXELYNX’s upcoming debut game ELYNXIR is a next-generation mobile gaming platform that will bring fans closer to their favorite artists through exclusive music content, in-game collectibles, and playable immersive experiences.

Powered by Niantic Lightship AR technology, ELYNXIR leverages advanced augmented reality and geolocation for players to discover games, music, artists, collectibles, and community-made content. As an entirely new level of creative immersion and gameplay in the music metaverse, ELYNXIR aims to facilitate a new type of artist-to-fan collaboration that will transform how the music industry engages communities and monetizes content, giving fans the opportunity to be collectors, collaborators, influencers, and investors.

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.

PIXELYNX’s ELYNXIR will be integrated into the Animoca Brands ecosystem with an emphasis on interoperability, open standards, and new interactive audio-visual formats.

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 centralized to decentralized ownership. We are thrilled to welcome PIXELYNX to the growing family of Animoca Brands and we look forward to helping to shape the forefront of the music industry while building new and innovative experiences for people around the world.”

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.”

Animoca Brands had previously led a seed funding round of funding for PIXELYNX in December 2021 with participation from Solana Ventures, Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund, Hyperedge Capital, Republic Realm, Sfermion, and others (see announcement of 6 December 2021).

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About PIXELYNX

PIXELYNX was founded in 2020 by iconic musicians and technologists Joel Zimmerman aka deadmau5, Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman, and music industry visionaries Ben Turner (Graphite; IMS: International Music Summit; AFEM: Association for Electronic Music), Dean Wilson (Seven20 Entertainment; mau5trap), and Inder Phull, a music metaverse futurist. The company, based in London and Los Angeles, is focused on building a music metaverse ecosystem that will transform the way artists connect and engage with their fans through gaming experiences. Its debut mobile game, ELYNXIR, began limited access tests in October 2022, with new features to be revealed and tested with iconic partners and community members. The full beta of ELYNXIR will be available in the first half of 2023. For more information visit https://pixelynx.io or https://elynxir.game.

About Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands, a Deloitte Tech Fast winner and ranked in the Financial Times list of High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2021, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights and contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse. The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E. It has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Animoca Brands Japan, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, Notre Game, TinyTap, Be Media, and Pixelynx. Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 380 investments, including Colossal, Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or follow on Twitter or Facebook.