360 views on tech #14
đź‘‹ Hi there, welcome to 360 views on tech, a weekly newsletter curating the most insightful news of the week and putting to the fore the latest trends.
The startups that are to make money from the metaverse 🤖
Sifted — Maija Palmer
While the exact definition of metaverse is still TBC, investors are increasingly taking bets on this space with metaverse-related companies having raised €2.6B in 2021. Whichever way the metaverse goes, it will be a lot more than people playing games with headsets on and some advise to start looking into the startups creating the tools and building blocks for the metaverse: avatars, virtual backgrounds, virtual real estate and technical hardware…
The hardware tools đź›
In order to properly function and evolve in the metaverse, we’ll need to think further than VR headsets. Users will want to remove the barrier between them and the content and interact with objects or people other than by clicking. There will be a play for startups enabling this “real-life” touch and move experience— think of Ultraleap (🇬🇧 based, $167M in total funding), which developed haptic technology giving the illusion of touch in mid-air, using concentrated sound waves, which cannot be heard but can be felt as pressure. Another example is the startup Condense Reality (🇬🇧 based, $880k in total funding), which allows to capture and stream volumetric video, which can be viewed by multiple people from different angles.
Building your metaverse environment 🌎
Despite the scarcity-fueled spending frenzy of parcels in virtual worlds, virtual world-builders are worth watching, because they are experimenting with user engagement on virtual platforms. To take the example of The Sandbox, there are more than 800k users engaging with the platform, buying and selling virtual land on the platform (even Snoop Dogg created the Snoop Mansion), you’ll also find some 165 brands figuring out how advertising and sales might work in the metaverse. And The Sandbox is keen on enticing this experimentation on the platform by taking only a 5% royalty on transaction and reinvesting half of it back into the platform either to fund the development of new tools or as rewards for players.
Avatars and identity 🕵️
In order to properly evolve in a digital world, defining and securing a digital identity in the metaverse will be crucial. Some argue that the metaverse will be more than a place or a platform but rather a network of thousands of metaverses and you will want an identity that can work across all of them. That is the bet of the platform Ready Player Me (🇪🇪 Estonia-based, $30M in total funding), a cross-game avatar platform used by 1000+ developers for 1000+ apps/games, in order to explore worlds with a consistent avatar identity. On top of that, expressing one’s identity in the metaverse will be key: think skins and accessories enablers ! Customuse (🇬🇧 based, $1.5M in total funding) allows gamers to easily create skins and virtual accessories and sell them on popular gaming platforms like Roblox, Decentraland and Zepeto.
And besides the outlook, creating a passport to the metaverse also goes through securing interactions with the metaverse, ensuring the uniqueness of the identity, encrypting the activity and making sure you don’t need logins and passwords to interact with different sites.
Read here the full article for further insights !
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- Female cofounders are getting short-changed on equity
- How to build your sales strategy: 20minVC podcast with Sequoia
- Meta stocks plummets after reporting weak earnings and a decline in active daily users
- The state of European unicorns: 2021 wrapped
Fundraisings
- Descartes Underwriting, the risk modeling solution for companies raised €107M from Highland Europe, Eurazeo, Serena & Cathay Innovation
- Snapshift, the solution simplifying scheduling and personnel management raised €40M from Highland Europe, BPI France & UL Invest
- Prello, the solution for fractional second-home ownership raised €13M from Otium Capital, Axeleo and business angels
- Chance, the digital coaching platform raised €12M from Educapital, Citizen Capital and business angels (have a look at their “provoquons la chance” campaign for equal opportunities)
- Deskare, the hybrid work management solution raised €1.2M from business angels
- Popsink, the solution enabling real-time ETLs for data teams raised €800k from XAnge, Kima and business angels
M&A
- Gorillas acquired Frichti to build its local footprint and access their selection of multi-category products
- CMA-CGM acquired Colis Privé to reinforce their e-commerce and last-mile segments
- LumApps acquired HeyAxel, an onboarding management platform
Funds
- Norrsken has teamed up with 30 unicorn founders and VC/PE investors to launch a $200M fund targeted at African startups
- London VC firm SuperSeed launches a ÂŁ50M seed fund to invest in the future of business automation
- Madrid-based Enzo Ventures is back with its 2nd fund in just a year. This new €20M seed fund will focus on GenZ founders across Europe
Check out our website for more info on 360 Capital
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