The Sandbox acquires technology firm Cualit to accelerate Web3 development and metaverse growth
South American technology team becomes The Sandbox Uruguay, immediately boosting The Sandbox’s Web3 and blockchain development resources and providing access to regional talent
HONG KONG – 19 May 2022 – The Sandbox, a leading decentralized gaming virtual world and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, announced today it has acquired the Uruguayan company Cualit, a full-stack development technology firm experienced in gaming, to boost its Web3 and blockchain innovation and development capabilities. The Sandbox has had a close partnership with Cualit for over a year and will work with Martin and Frederico Perez, the two brothers who co-founded the company, to significantly boost the team’s growth through additional resources and infrastructure. Cualit will become The Sandbox Uruguay, expanding The Sandbox global team and accelerating growth of its ambitious metaverse ecosystem.
Cualit has been instrumental in decentralizing the tech industry in Uruguay by applying blockchain frameworks and technologies to competitive projects over the past 10 years. It has built innovative digital experiences for leading brands, empowering digital transformation in the country and reinforcing its presence as an innovative hub for technology and software development. In its new identity as The Sandbox Uruguay, the team will focus its efforts on accelerating development of The Sandbox.
With a quality education system and many prominent Fintech companies, Uruguay is an ideal location for The Sandbox’s second development office in South America, alongside the existing Argentina development team responsible for the Game Client and Game Maker. To further enhance The Sandbox Uruguay’s capabilities, The Sandbox plans to leverage local Web3 talent to increase the team’s size of approximately 90 technology professionals in the near future, boosting to 150 people in Latin America.
“Web3 technology is rapidly evolving and we believe The Sandbox Uruguay will help us to onboard millions of users through their expertise in web design and user flow,” said Arthur Madrid, CEO and co-founder of The Sandbox. “Uruguay is a fantastic place to invest in technology and we see a new generation of developers who want to rethink the way we are using and owning our data through the open metaverse.”
“As The Sandbox Uruguay, we are empowered to raise a new hub of talent for all of Latin America, fueling growth for The Sandbox and the region,” said Martin and Frederico Perez, directors of The Sandbox Uruguay. “We look forward to rapidly expanding our team and taking our contribution to the metaverse to the next level with additional investment, resources, and shared learning across The Sandbox global team.”
The Sandbox Uruguay team
Part virtual real estate, part amusement park, The Sandbox fully embraces the idea of the metaverse as a continuous shared digital space where worlds and heroes collide to make magic. It offers a rich, open metaverse driven by fun interactive experiences, a user-generated content (UGC) ecosystem that rewards creators with 95% of their proceeds, and a decentralized virtual economy. The Sandbox is emerging as the first entertainment platform that combines a creator-driven, user-centric open metaverse with rich gaming and social experiences, true ownership, and licensed content from over 200 major brands including Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, The Rabbids, Gucci Vault, The Walking Dead, Snoop Dogg, Adidas, and many more. These partnerships empower players to create their own experiences using both original and well-known characters and worlds, and the acquisition of Cualit is expected to enhance the onboarding of new partners and creators.
“The Sandbox Uruguay will add a technology-driven team to support the development of critical tools and infrastructure such as the Dashboard, the Marketplace, publishing tools, data analysis, and data flows that power The Sandbox platform,” said Sebastien Borget, COO and co-founder of The Sandbox. “This acquisition will help us rapidly scale the play-and-earn adoption by our growing ecosystem of both partner brands and the UGC Creators Economy.”
Frederico (L) and Martin Perez (R) with Sebastien Borget
The Sandbox has over 3 million registered players and recently concluded its Season 2 Alpha that gave 330,000 players a chance to get an early look at the entertainment metaverse as it proceeds toward its full launch. The Sandbox is hiring globally and current opportunities can be found at http://careers.sandbox.game.
Find more information on The Sandbox on our Medium page: https://medium.com/sandbox-game
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSandboxGame
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/voxedit
Message us on Telegram: https://t.me/sandboxgame
Join our Discord channel: https://discordapp.com/invite/vAe4zvY
About The Sandbox
The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, is one of the decentralized virtual worlds fueling the recent growth of virtual real estate demand, having partnered with major IPs and brands including Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, The Rabbids, Shibuya 109, Gucci Vault, The Walking Dead, Snoop Dogg, Adidas, Deadmau5, Steve Aoki, Richie Hawtin, The Smurfs, Care Bears, Atari, ZEPETO, CryptoKitties, and more. Building on the existing The Sandbox IP that has more than 40 million global installs on mobile, The Sandbox metaverse offers players and creators a decentralized and intuitive platform to create immersive 3D worlds and game experiences and to safely store, trade, and monetize their creations. The Sandbox has more than 300 employees and offices in Hong Kong, Korea, Malta, France, UK, US, Argentina, and Uruguay. For more information, please visit www.sandbox.game and follow the regular updates on Twitter, Medium, and Discord.
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. It 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. The company has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Grease Monkey Games, and Eden Games. Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 200 investments in NFT-related companies and decentralized projects that are contributing to building the open metaverse, including 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.