The Sandbox (SAND) announced the acquisition of Uruguayan startup, Cualit, to drive solutions in Web 3.0 development, enhance the gaming experience with blockchain technology. The deal was negotiated for more than a year.
🇺🇾 Welcome to The Sandbox Uruguay! 🇺🇾
We are proud to announce the acquisition of Uruguayan company @Cualit, a full-stack development technology firm experienced in gaming, to boost our #Web3 and blockchain innovation and development capabilities.https://t.co/f9xNSRQLB1
— The Sandbox (@TheSandboxGame) May 19, 2022
Cualit will become The Sandbox Uruguay, expanding The Sandbox’s global team and accelerating the growth of its ambitious metaverse ecosystem.
Cualit has been instrumental in decentralizing the technology industry in Uruguay by applying blockchain frameworks and technologies to competitive projects over the last 10 years. It has built innovative digital experiences for leading brands, empowering digital transformation in the country and reinforcing its presence as an innovative technology and software development hub.
🚀Ahora somos parte de @thesandboxgame, una plataforma pionera de mundo virtual descentralizado y subsidiaria de @animocabrands. Nuestro objetivo será impulsar su capacidad de innovación y desarrollo de Web3 y blockchain. pic.twitter.com/BhtJoOoO7j
— Cualit (@cualit) May 19, 2022
In its new identity as The Sandbox Uruguay, the team will focus its efforts on accelerating the development of The Sandbox.
With a quality education system and many prominent Fintech companies, The Sandbox said Uruguay is an ideal location for the company’s second development office in South America, alongside the existing development team in Argentina, responsible for Game Client and Game Maker.
To further enhance The Sandbox Uruguay’s capabilities, The Sandbox plans to leverage Web3’s local talent to increase the size of the team from approximately 90 technology professionals in the near future, growing to 150 people in Latin America.
Part virtual real estate and part amusement park, The Sandbox fully embraces the idea of the metaverse as a shared, continuous digital space where worlds and heroes collide to make magic.
It offers a rich and open metaverse driven by fun interactive experiences, a user-generated content (UGC) ecosystem that rewards creators with 95% of their earnings, and a decentralized virtual economy.
The Sandbox is shaping up to be the first entertainment platform that combines a creator-driven, user-centric open metaverse with rich social and gaming experiences, real property and licensed content from more than 200 major brands, including Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, The Rabbids, Gucci Vault, The Walking Dead, Snoop Dogg, Adidas and many more.
These partnerships allow players to create their own experiences using both original and familiar characters and worlds, and the acquisition of Cualit is expected to enhance the onboarding of new partners and creators.
Arthur Madrid, CEO and co-founder of The Sandbox, stated the following:
“Web3 technology is evolving rapidly and we believe The Sandbox Uruguay will help us onboard millions of users through its expertise in web design and user flow. Uruguay is a fantastic place to invest in technology and we see a new generation of developers who want to rethink the way we use and own our data through the open metaverse.”
In January of this year, The Sandbox announced that it would allocate $50 million in a program to accelerate the development of startups within its metaverse. Meanwhile, The Animoca Brands, which is in charge of game development and is one of the program’s important partners along with venture capital firm Brinc.
The program aims to invest annually in an average of 30 to 40 startups, giving them an initial investment of 250 thousand dollars and, to incentivize them, they will be given a bonus of 150 thousand dollars in SAND, the native token of the project, and LAND which are real estate within the metaverse.
The Sandbox moves forward in supporting startups in the metaverse
SAND pointed out that it worked for over a year with Martin and Frederico Perez, the co-founders of Cualit to drive the team’s growth, and now Cualit will become The Sandbox Uruguay, due to its previous experience of 10 years in building digital experiences for leading brands.
Martin and Frederico Perez, directors of The Sandbox Uruguay, maintained:
“As The Sandbox Uruguay, we are empowered to create a new talent hub for all of Latin America, driving the growth of The Sandbox and the region. 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’s global team”.
Meanwhile, Sebastien Borget, COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox, said The Sandbox Uruguay will leverage the local talent of 90 professionals, and grow to 150 people, who will support the development of tools such as Dashboard, Marketplace, publishing tools, data analytics and data flows.
“This acquisition will help us rapidly scale the adoption of games and revenue by our growing ecosystem of partner brands and the UGC creator economy.”
The Sandbox has over 3 million registered players and has recently concluded its Season 2 Alpha, which has given 330,000 players the opportunity to get a first glimpse into the entertainment metaverse as it moves towards its full launch.
