[NEWS] Mitsui & Co. announces capital and business alliance with Animoca Brands

Mitsui & Co. announced on the 19th that it has signed a memorandum of understanding on capital and business alliance and strategic partnership with Hong Kong-based Web 3.0 company Animoca Brands.

Going forward, the two companies will utilize Mitsui & Co.'s wide range of business assets, from consumer business to industrial business, as well as its partner and customer network, to create new businesses that contribute to the spread and innovation of Web 3.0, mainly in Japan.

In addition, the two companies will accelerate strategic partnerships in a wide range of fields, such as the development of joint ventures and the establishment of joint ventures in various fields, such as the application of blockchain in the wellness field and the decarbonization/carbon credit field, and will work to solve social issues.

Through this partnership, Mitsui & Co. will strengthen its business development in the field of blockchain and digital assets, and will advance efforts to support the development of a digital society and the enrichment of customers' lives.

Animoca Brands is a company that invests in more than 450 companies, from basic technologies such as protocols and infrastructure in the Web 3.0 field to blockchain games and the metaverse field. In October 2021, Animoca Brands Inc. was established as a strategic subsidiary in Japan.

In addition, Daisuke Iwase, former chairman of Lifenet Insurance, was appointed as the new CEO of Animoca Brands Inc. in April of this year.

Mitsui & Co. is one of the top five trading companies in Japan, and in its consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ending March 2023 announced last month, it recorded a net profit of 1.1306 trillion yen (an increase of 23.6% from the previous fiscal year), the first time for a general trading company.

This is the first time that Mitsui & Co. has entered into a business partnership with a Web 3.0 company, but it has been involved in related businesses through its subsidiaries.

Mitsui & Co. Digital Commodities has issued the cryptocurrency Zipangu Coin (ZPG), which aims to link the price of gold. It is traded on domestic cryptocurrency exchanges bitFlyer and DMM Bitcoin.

Last month, Mitsui & Co. Digital Asset Management also launched the asset management service "ALTERNA" to provide a new option for individual investors. ALTERNA uses digital securities (security tokens: ST) and allows investments in small amounts starting from 100,000 yen.

The first investment project is a residence building in the Nihonbashi area called "Stage Grande Nihonbashi Ningyocho," and applications for investment began on the 2nd of this month.

Reference: Announcement
Image: Quoted from Mitsui & Co. press release