Yat Siu
Yat Siu is a veteran tech entrepreneur, angel investor and major player in the open metaverse and blockchain gaming. Yat is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands, a global leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification. Animoca Brands is a game developer and publisher for content such as Cryptokitties, Garfield, Doraemon, Ultraman and is public on the ASX. Under his leadership, Animoca Brands has propelled its valuation to $6 billion “unicorn” status, and has transformed into a global leader in the delivery of digital property rights via blockchain and NFTs. A visionary in gaming and beyond, Yat is a pioneer in the use of blockchain and NFTs in the gaming industry. He has been behind several groundbreaking companies—the best known among them is Outblaze, an award-winning tech conglomerate specializing in cloud, gaming, and smartphone software. He is also a Director for TurnOut Ventures, a partnership between Outblaze and Turner Entertainment.
Since 2018, Yat has steered Animoca Brands to a leadership position in Web3, blockchain, gaming, NFTs and the open metaverse.
With Animoca, he has been behind games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings and Crazy Defense Heroes.
Animoca supports Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Bitski, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others.
Animoca is the publisher of the first blockbuster NFT game, CryptoKitties, in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Today, Animoca Brands delivers digital property rights to the world’s gamers and Internet users, thereby creating a new asset class, play-to-earn economies, and a more equitable digital framework contributing to the building of the open metaverse.
In 1998, Yat set up Outblaze, an award-winning pioneer of multilingual white label web services.
Yat Siu's steady leadership and vision steered Outblaze through the Dotcom Bubble and several subsequent crises.
Yat led Outblaze to become a conglomerate specializing in cloud, AI, blockchain, and mobile software.
In 2012 he set up ThinkBlaze, the research arm of Outblaze dedicated to investigating socially meaningful issues in technology.
CURRENT APPOINTMENTS
Member, Task Force Promoting Web3 Development in Hong Kong SAR
Board Director, Dalton Foundation
Advisor, LCX
Member of the Board, Cortico
Member of the Advisory Board, BAFTA
Fonero Leader, FON Wireless
Board Member, Asian Youth Orchestra
RECOGNITION
2022, 2023 Asia's Most Influential HK
2022 Top People in Crypto and Blockchain, Cointelegraph
2021 Asia's Most Influential
2009 Young Entrepreneur of the Year, DHL/SCMP Awards
2003 Linux Business Adoption Award
2003 Communication Technologies Award
2002 Global Leader of Tomorrow, World Economic Forum
URENCO Innovation Award
Standard Chartered Platinum Achievers Award
Outstanding Entrepreneur Award, Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards
EARLY CAREER
He started his career at Atari Germany before moving to Hong Kong in 1996.
He established Hong Kong Online, one of the region's first internet service providers, and set up Cyber City/Freenation, the first free web page and email provider in Asia.
After selling Outblaze's messaging unit to IBM, he founded Animoca, which later became Animoca Brands, and began to focus on digital entertainment projects.
MEDIA & APPEARANCES
Yat has been profiled or featured in various financial media outlets and publications.
He has appeared in Bloomberg, Forbes, Financial Times, Tatler Asia, Financial News London, TechCrunch, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, and many more.