Anima raises $3M for augmented reality protocol

Anima, the protocol for dynamic and ownable augmented reality, said it raised an additional $3 million in capital from new investors for its augmented reality protocol used in apps such as the Onlybots AR digital pets.

Anima‘s funding came from HashKey, Not Boring Capital, Polygon Studios and NGC Ventures. They join the company’s previous investors Coinbase Ventures, Flamingo, and Divergence Ventures.

“Web3 has brought digital assets under our control, but they still fail to connect back to our lives in meaningful and non-speculative ways. Augmented reality brings that relevance and connection,” said Alex Herrity, cofounder of Anima, in a statement. “We believe creative minds should be shaping this new medium. Anima’s protocol and toolset make reality a canvas for creators, linking the context of the physical world with real digital ownership.”

Partnering with artists like Michael Kagan and Lyle Owerko, Anima’s early projects demonstrated the potential for augmented reality as an outlet for creators to explore new avenues, setting records for AR auctions and driving over a million dollars in art sales.

Last week, Anima introduced Onlybots, a collection of augmented reality creatures that showcase an ambitious collectible brand built for AR.

The project sold out and hit the top trending projects on trading marketplaces within an hour of launch. Earlier this year, the Mirror project with street artist Demsky was built with Anima’s location-based AR functionality to trigger persistent evolutions of 3D digital sculptures, prompting collectors to travel hundreds of miles across countries on their real-world quest to reach virtual landmarks.

“Anima lets creators expand their toolkits and carry their creativity from the screen to the physical world. They’re building towards a future in which the whole world becomes a canvas,” said investor Packy McCormick of Not Boring, in a statement.

The Anima protocol and toolset are in a private beta with a public launch in early 2023, providing a path for creators to release and tokenize dynamic creations that interact with the real world. Anima empowers creators to set the terms of their sales and enables collectors to obtain true ownership.

Projects being built on the Anima protocol range from on-chain virtual pets to video games to immersive
fine art sculptures.

Anima was founded in 2021 by cofounders Neil Voss and Herrity, known for their work building iconic
creative products with companies like Nintendo, Epic Games, HBO, Tumbl, and Flipboard. The company has 10 employees. Anima disclosed a small preseed round last year from Coinbase, Flamingo, and others in tech and Web3.