Softbank leads a nearly $100 million funding round for a metaverse and NFT-focused startup also backed by Snoop Dogg

• A metaverse startup got nearly $100 million in a funding round led by Softbank.
• Sandbox is a virtual world where players can monetize digital assets like NFTs.

A metaverse and NFT-focused startup scored nearly $100 million in a round led by a Softbank fund.

The startup, known as Sandbox, is is an ethereum-based metaverse that allows gamers to create their own virtual world and monetize digital assets, such as non-fungible tokens. For example, players can purchase plots of land they can build on, Coindesk reported Tuesday.

"In this era of new possibilities, The Sandbox is emerging as the main NFT-based, open metaverse, where the content, economy, and even governance will be in the hands of the players, creators, and users who contribute to this virtual world," the company said in its press release.

The company is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm backing the metaverse and GameFi.

In its press release, Sandbox Cofunder Sebastien Borget said the Series B funding round will send "a clear statement that the world's most innovative fund believes in Web3 and decentralization as the next major trend." Executives from GoldenTree Asset Management, among others, also invested in the round, the press release said.

The startup has partnerships with brands and people, including Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, and CryptoKitties, and has more than 500,000 users with connected crypto wallets. Its cryptocurrency, aptly named "Sandbox," has a $2.3 billion market valuation, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Monday, another NFT-focused company called Sfermion got a $100 million funding round with big-name backers like the Winklevoss twins and two general partners from Andreessen Horowitz.

The announcements follow news that social media platform Facebook would be changing its name to Meta in an effort to forge into the future of the internet, the metaverse.