Animoca Brands has partnered with venture accelerator Brinc to launch the Guild Accelerator Program with the aim of growing the global play-to-earn guild ecosystem.

Operating within Launchpad Luna as a dedicated track, online applications are open throughout the duration of February 2022. The first cohort is planned for a start in May, with guilds committed to sustainability being prioritised.

With an intial investment of up to $500,000 in each accepted early-stage guild, over two years the total investment capital will total up to $30 million.

The Guild Accelerator Program will be led by Animoca Brands entrepreneur-in-residence Richard Robinson, aiming to scale growth, nurture innovation and raise funds. Meanwhile, Avocado Guild founder Brendan Wong, Yield Guild Games head of partnerships Sasuke Sarutobi, and Ancient8 co-founder Howard Xu are among the experts, supporters and mentors from Animoca Brands’ networks who will be involved.

Transforming guilds

Animoca Brands previously backed Yield Guild Games and Avocado Guild, as well as Axie Infinity, as an early investor.

"The technologies, principles and business models developed in gaming that have enabled true digital asset ownership and utilisation (with aligned stakeholders) can be leveraged across all future areas of jobs and work," said Brinc CEO and founder Manav Gupta.

"Guilds can help transform education, skill development, agriculture, R and 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 Brands co-founder and executive chairmen Yat Siu added: "The play-to-earn guilds space has enormous potential for growth. The management of digital assets in games and in the open metaverse represents a significant source of income for hundreds of millions of people."

In other partnership news, Animoca Brands subsidiary gaming world The Sandbox recently revealed a partnership with dance battle app DanceFight to bring dance move NFTs to the metaverse.