The Block: Saudi Arabia, The Sandbox agree to collaborate on metaverse projects

Metaverse gaming platform The Sandbox and Saudi Arabia have come to an understanding of some sort. Details were not provided.

Sandbox co-founder and COO Sebastien Borget took to LinkedIn to announce the news. “It was a true honor to sign our [memorandum of understanding] partnership … between The Sandbox and the Saudi Arabia Digital Government Authority,” he wrote. “We look forward to exploring, advising and supporting mutually each other in activations of the Metaverse!”

Borget and Saudi Arabia’s DGA inked the memorandum while attending the Leap Tech Conference in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. Borget said by email that he could not reveal anything further regarding his company’s agreement with the Saudi Arabian government, but details would be forthcoming in the “coming weeks.”

While Sandbox has yet to achieve anything close to mass adoption, it is considered by many executives and investors to be an early leader in the development of the metaverse. The digital platform is a virtual space where users can create their own mini-universe inside the game.

The company raised $93 million in a Series B round led by SoftBank's Vision Fund in 2021 and then less than six months later was said to be trying to raise an additional $400 million, for a valuation of $4 billion.

In the Middle East, both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have, in recent years, been pursuing policies and investments related to cryptocurrency, web3 and the metaverse. The Saudi Arabian DGA “is the authority concerned with everything related to digital government,” according to a government website.

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