December 28, 2021 – Ready Player Me, an avatar platform for the metaverse that allows users to explore virtual worlds with one consistent identity, has today announced a Series A funding round of USD $13 million to expand its team across the globe. The round was supported by investors including Taavet+Sten, a firm led by Taavet Hinrikus, the co-founder of fintech company Wise (formerly TransferWise), and Sten Tamkivi, Teleport co-founder.
Ready Player Me describes its platform as “a connective passport for the metaverse”, offering technology that bridges a network of thousands of worlds by giving consumers an avatar they can use not only in one world, but to travel across many virtual platforms.
The company sated that the funding will be used to continue global growth and establish Ready Player Me’s presence as the default avatar system for the metaverse. In the months to come, avatars will also be usable in even more virtual worlds than the 900 supported today, according to the company. Ready Player Me is also investing into building out monetization tools to help game developers make money by selling NFT’s and in-game avatar customization assets, which is a proven monetization model in the gaming industry.
The inter-world capabilities of the Ready Player Me technology is of notable significance for both NFT’s and virtual fashion. The company believes that the ability for NFT wearables to be usable across the metaverse will in-turn have a direct impact on value, which will ultimately present an opportunity for NFT creators and fashion companies. With this new funding, Ready Player Me stated that it recognizes the growth of its business could open doors for many, and could contribute to the creation of a metaverse economy.
“2021 has been a breakout year for Ready Player Me – our avatar platform adoption has grown from 25 to 900 companies. By giving people avatars that travel across virtual worlds, we can make the metaverse more connected. The metaverse is not one place or platform, it’s a network of thousands of experiences,” said Ready Player Me, CEO Timmu Tõke. “With the funding, we will scale our partner network further and will build out monetization tools for developers to help them make money with avatar customization assets and NFT’s. Our goal is to become the default system for the metaverse.”
To date, Ready Player Me’s avatar system is used by 900+ companies including VRChat, Somnium Space, Verizon, and Hiberworld. The avatar platform has also partnered with popular brands such as Warner Brothers, Dior, and New Balance. Most recently, Ready Player Me partnered with electronic music producer Deadmau5, music metaverse platform Pixelynx, and artist Smearballs to bring the Head5 NFT collection to the platform.
Other investors in the round included Tom Preston-Werner, the co-founder of GitHub, VC firms, Konvoy Ventures, Nordic Ninja, and Samsung Next Ventures, Tiny VC, Kamerra, Stefano Corazza, the head of augmented reality at Adobe and founder of Mixamo, SomniumSpace and many more.
For more information on Ready Player Me and its avatar platform for virtual reality and the metaverse, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Ready Player Me
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.