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ASX Release

18 March 2019

 

Silver Egg to invest in Animoca Brands’ subsidiary Zeroth

 

Highlights:

  • AI-based web marketing company Silver Egg invests US$0.5m (~A$0.71m) into Zeroth SPC, the segregated portfolios of Zeroth which fund acceleration programmes for technology startups

  • Animoca Brands acquired Zeroth in 2018

  • Capital allows Zeroth to consider investments into a broader range of companies and allows additional fee generation

  • Silver Egg will provide new technology and commercial services to Zeroth and accelerator companies in Japan, and assist Animoca Brands’ market penetration in region

  • Zeroth and Silver Egg to seek partnering opportunities for expansion across Asia 

  • Continues Animoca Brands’ strategic vision focusing on AI and blockchain worldwide

 

Animoca Brands Corporation Limited (ASX: AB1, “the Company”) is pleased to advise that Silver Egg Technology Asia Limited, the Hong Kong subsidiary of Silver Egg Technology CO.,Ltd. (TYO: 3961, parent and subsidiary together: "Silver Egg”), will invest US$0.5 million (approximately A$0.71 million) into Zeroth SPC.

 

Silver Egg is a Japanese company with over 20 years of experience providing AI-based web marketing services for real-time big data analysis, as well as AI-leveraged cloud services that enable businesses to serve customers with real-time personalization. Silver Egg is one of the top recommendation Software as a Service (SaaS) providers in Japan, with 27% Japanese market share by sales volume in 2017 (source: TSR survey). Silver Egg recently released Prospector, an AI powered tool for outbound marketing that helps businesses target prospective customers based on their previous purchasing behaviors.

 

Zeroth, which was acquired by Animoca Brands last year, is Asia’s first accelerator program backing high-potential startups that are working on frontier technologies including AI, machine learning, and blockchain. Zeroth provides operational, strategic, and networking support to investee companies as they develop their businesses. Zeroth has accelerated three cohorts totalling 33 companies from 15 countries, and is accelerating 30 more companies in the current Z04 cohort, obtaining around 6% equity in each accelerated company.

 

Zeroth previously announced a strategic partnership with Japanese AI incubator Deepcore, a wholly owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO: 9984; see ASX announcement of 19 November 2018).

 

On 15 March 2019, Silver Egg’s board of directors  passed a resolution authorizing Silver Egg to invest US$0.5 million (approximately A$0.71 million) into one or more of the segregated portfolios of Zeroth. This marks the beginning of a strategic partnership between the two companies: Silver Egg will bring the promising new technology and commercial services of Zeroth and Zeroth companies to the Japanese market, while Zeroth will assist Silver Egg to seek partnering and licensing opportunities for expansion across Asia.

 

Thomas Foley, president and CEO of Silver Egg said: “I am profoundly impressed by the strategic potential of Zeroth’s startup partners. We are not only well-positioned to help bring their ambitions to fruition in the difficult-to-penetrate Japanese market, but by working together we can realize Animoca Brands’ strategic vision for unleashing the immense potential of AI and Blockchain worldwide.”

 

Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, said: “Following the partnership with Deepcore announced last November, we’re especially excited to secure Silver Egg as a key partner as we progress our work in AI and blockchain, and we will seek to deepen this relationship. We look forward to working together and leveraging the lucrative Japan market.”
 

-END

 

About Silver Egg Technology Co., Ltd.
Silver Egg Technology Co., Ltd. (TYO:3961) develops and provides cloud-based Web Marketing and real-time Big Data services based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Its performance-based Aigent Recommender service powers the personalized recommendations on many of Japan's top internet sites. Silver Egg Technology was founded in 1998, is headquartered in Osaka, and was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2016. 


About Zeroth

Zeroth.ai (or Zeroth) is Asia’s first artificial intelligence and machine learning focused accelerator, supporting the best entrepreneurs involved in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Zeroth.ai invests pre-seed capital and works closely with those entrepreneurs to build their team. The company partners with elite investors, founders, and corporates to help build those teams into companies. Current investments include some of Asia’s most exciting startups in the fields of AI and machine learning, including dishq, FANOlabs, au and Laboratik. For more information visit http://zeroth.ai/ 

 

About Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands (ASX: AB1) leverages gamification, blockchain, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of mobile products including games such as The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes as well as products based on popular intellectual properties such as Garfield, Snoopy, Thomas & Friends™, Ever After High and Doraemon. Animoca Brands is the exclusive China distributor of CryptoKitties. The Company is based in Hong Kong, Canada, Finland, and Argentina. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or get updates by following Animoca Brands on Facebook or Twitter.

 

Contact: press@animocabrands.com

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