Brinc and The Sandbox come together to create Bharatbox – India’s next big cultural Metaverse

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The Background
The NFT market in India is anticipated to reach $27 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 61.6% from $3.3 billion in 2021. Tapping into this opportunity, The Sandbox, in a joint venture with Brinc, launched Bharatbox, a cultural metaverse hub featuring high-profile artists and brands from India. The new entrants have joined The Sandbox’s virtual real estate by acquiring LAND NFTs in the open metaverse. The Sandbox which has over 400 partners, including Warner Music Group, Gucci Vault, The Walking Dead, Invincible, Snoop Dogg, Adidas, Steve Aoki, The Smurfs, Care Bears, and Atari, is enabling players to create their own immersive experiences.

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The Deal
A joint venture between The Sandbox and Brinc unveiled Bharatbox, a new cultural hub which will feature key partners from India’s entertainment, art, and sports sectors, including Bollywood. 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. Bharatbox’s principal partner is Heftyverse, India’s entertainment NFT marketplace. Multiple high-profile brands and artists will come together to engage with fans through new immersive experiences in The Sandbox dedicated to celebrating Indian art, culture, entertainment, and sports. Brinc will create the experiences and also provide IPs and brands via its extensive partner network in India, as well as building the games alongside Web3 developers. Considering their business models collectively, they will focus on both B2B and B2C partnerships.

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Mihir Kapoor, Founder and Managing Partner of IEG Asia, states, “Bharatbox is a promising joint venture with a robust business model and an execution team which is paramount in promoting the cultural hub landscape. With a booming entertainment NFT marketplace in India, we feel this sector is ripe for exponential growth over the next few years.”

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Karan Keswani, Managing Director of Brinc India, further stated “The Sandbox metaverse experience is now available to Indian IPs and brands. The immersive experiences already on offer demonstrate the platform’s capability, while the potential and creativity of those who will develop on Bharatbox LAND possess will result in a truly exceptional experience for consumers, which can be monetized by the brands, consumers and gamers alike under decentralized, transparent revenue share contracts.  This joint venture will promote Web3 development in India and Indian Web3 consumption both in India and the world.”

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The Partners
The Sandbox, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, 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 IP has more than 40 million global installs on mobile.

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Brinc is a leader in global venture acceleration, operating 18 multidisciplinary accelerator programs in seven countries. Brinc accelerates startups focused on Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, connected hardware, drones, robotics, clean energy and food technology, all within a sustainability mandate.

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Animoca Brands, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights and contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse.

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Heftyverse is a metaverse initiative of Hefty Entertainment Inc., bringing content across Bollywood, independent, talent, celebrities and brands to consumers as Entertainment 3.0. It is a virtual world that aims to provide users with an immersive, interactive and entertaining experience.

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The Perspective
Bharatbox is set to revamp the global digital cultural landscape as Indian talent will come together to create innovative experiences. It will introduce a new audience to our nation's distinct and unique talent while monetizing its art and culture in previously through interaction created by Indian live events, one-off experiences, and pop culture. It has already received backing from some of India’s biggest stars paving the path towards digital entertainment and a decentralized virtual world.

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