Animoca Brands has expanded its gaming software and venture capital companies to the Middle East and has established a presence in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This move will come in response to increased demand from Web3 organizations entering the region. To lead this expansion, the company has appointed Omar Elsar as Managing Director for the Middle East and Head of Global Strategic Partnerships.
In his new role, Omar will be responsible for overseeing the growth and operation of the Animocha brand in the Middle East. He also plays a pivotal role in enhancing the company’s presence in the region by fostering innovation, managing strategic directions and developing partnerships. The new office will serve as a hub to engage both local and international partners, aiming to drive business growth and further establish the footprint of the Animocha brand in the Middle East.
Omar Elassar brings you eight years of experience in strategic business development within the Web3, technology and financial sector. Before joining the Animoca brand, Omar held senior executive positions through parity technology, Ripple, in major Web3 protocols, including Polkadot. There, he led strategic partnership and investment efforts in a variety of industries, including gaming, music, decentralized social networks, tokenization of real-world assets, and payments. Prior to his Web3 career, Omar worked in corporate and technology strategies and financial advisory roles at companies such as Oliver Wyman, Deloitte and Morgan Stanley. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and an honorary degree in computer engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada.
Animoca Brands focuses on tokenization and the use of blockchain technology to provide consumers with the rights to digital properties. This initiative is part of the company’s broader mission to contribute to the development of open metaverses and leverage its network effects.
The company pursues its mission through three major business pillars: First, we partner with Standard Chartered and HKT with projects such as Moca Network, Anichess, The Sandbox, Open Campus, Neom’s Web3 Initiative, and regulated Stablecoin projects to run a Web3 business aimed at promoting blockchain adoption. Second, Animoca Brands offers digital asset advisory services, including tocononomic guidance, liquidity provisioning, and institutional research, to support the growth of external Web3 projects. Finally, the company manages a diverse investment portfolio, including over 540 companies, including outstanding industry leaders such as Pudgy Penguins, Yuga Labs, Axie Infinity, Polygon, Consensys, Magic Eden, Opensea, Dapper Labs, and Ygg.
Recently, Animoca Brands announced a strategic partnership with Soneium, the Ethereum Layer 2 open blockchain developed by Sony. Through this collaboration, Animoca Brands’ flagship platform, Moca Network, focuses on open internet digital identity infrastructure and plays a key role in developing identity layers at Soneium.
