Cool Cats Group Secures Strategic Investment from Animoca Brands, Building on Gaming Partnership

Cool Cats and Animoca to Expand Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Cool Cats' Global Expansion

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cool Cats Group LLC, the web3 company behind the iconic blue-chip NFT collection Cool Cats, announced today that it has received a strategic investment from Animoca Brands, the company advancing digital property rights for gaming and the open metaverse. The partnership will drive Cool Cats' mission to become the largest global NFT brand and a robust media and content company, including through the expansion of its gaming offerings.

This strategic partnership is the culmination of a longstanding relationship between Ken Cron, Executive Chairman of Cool Cats Group, and Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands. "Yat is one of web3's foremost thought leaders and he has built one of the most important companies in the industry," said Cron. "Working more closely with Animoca Brands will bring tremendous value to Cool Cats and its community. Our new CEO, Stephen Teglas, and the entire Cool Cats team, couldn't be more excited to get started."

On September 1, Cool Cats announced it was partnering with GAMEE, one of Animoca Brands' subsidiaries that built a virtual casual gaming space connecting players, brands, and game creators. As part of the GAMEE partnership, Cool Cats holders have been able to access exclusive NFT claims, raffles, and community giveaways.

“Cool Cats is a leading example of metaverse native IP based on the principle of decentralized ownership,” said Siu. “Ken is one of the most experienced gaming and media executives in the world, and it has been my pleasure to have him as an Advisor to Animoca Brands’ Board of Directors for the past two years. Our belief in what the Cool Cats team has built, along with our commitment to the NFT space – which we believe will unlock the next frontier of gaming – could not be stronger.”

Animoca Brands, which recently closed a strategic funding round of US$110 million from a consortium of new investors, has been consistently working to deliver true digital ownership of users' virtual assets and to advance the open metaverse – with a particular focus on GameFi opportunities, including play-to-earn. The combination of Cool Cats and Animoca Brands will enable both companies to deliver unique and compelling gaming experiences to their respective communities and the broader gaming audience.

"We're thrilled to work more closely with Animoca Brands and tap into their deep gaming expertise to open up new immersive experiences for the Cool Cats community," said Teglas. "Many within our community already enjoy Animoca Brands' properties and we can't wait for Cool Cats holders to realize the value of our deepened relationship with Animoca Brands. We look forward to sharing announcements over the coming weeks and months as we roll out our partnership."

For more details on this partnership and upcoming launches at Cool Cats, please visit https://www.coolcatsnft.com/ and follow https://twitter.com/coolcatsnft.

About Cool Cats Group LLC

Cool Cats is a collection of 9,999 randomly generated and stylistically curated NFTs that exist on the Ethereum Blockchain. Though Cool Cats exploded in the web3 space on its July 1, 2021 launch day, the NFT brand comes from humble origins: it originates from the beloved comic character "Blue Cat," as brought to life by artist Colin Egan in 2013. Now "Blue Cat" is immortalized on the blockchain forever as the face of the Cool Cats origin collection, and his fellow anthropomorphic friends will join him in future NFT collections under the "Cool" umbrella. Beyond characters, comics, games, apps, merchandise, and animations, Cool Cats delivers inclusive, impactful, community-driven content through immersive storytelling. Beloved by many — including celebrity collectors Reese Witherspoon, Bill Murray, Mario Bautista, Alexis Ohanian, Marc Benioff, Josh Hart, and Mike Shinoda — the Cool Cats brand resonates widely. Cool Cats not only defines but also celebrates what it means to be cool.

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, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise, Notre Game, TinyTap, and Be Media. Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 340 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.

SOURCE Cool Cats