A metaverse avatar startup called "Ready Player Me" just closed a recent round of funding at $13 million, which furthers the world's recent push deeper into the business of cyberspace.
According to VentureBeat, the startup's latest funding round was led by Taavet+Sten, a firm headed by Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, and Teleport co-founder Sten Tamkivi.
Github co-founder Tom Preston was also part of the investors who led the fundraising round.
According to Ready Player Me CEO Timmu Toke, this year proved to be a "breakout year" for the Metaverse avatar platform. He claimed that his platform's adoption has grown to a massive 900 companies from 25 to start.
The company's main goal is to build a so-called "connective passport for the metaverse" by making tools for developers to make money on in-game wearable items, reports CoinDesk.
These aforementioned in-game items take the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). In the future, Ready Player Me hopes that its platform will help users maintain a consistent-looking avatar across multiple virtual spaces.
In other words, you won't have to create a new avatar every single time. You'll be able to port your likeness into different virtual environments-likely as long as Ready Player One supports them.
The world has been deepening its push into the metaverse ever since Meta and Mark Zuckerberg started championing the idea.
Aside from companies like Ready Player Me, Meta has been developing tech that allows for a "deeper" connection to the metaverse. A haptic glove will enable users to "feel" virtual objects as they would in real life.
What Is Ready Player Me, Exactly?
Take the allusion to the film "Ready Player One" a bit literally, and you'll basically get the idea of what this company aims to be.
According to the company's official website, their main tagline is "One avatar, many worlds to explore." In there, customers have the option to create their own custom avatar, which will serve as their "passport to the metaverse."
As previously mentioned, "Ready Player Me" will allow customers to explore multiple virtual environments with a consistent digital identity. But aside from "standardizing" the look of people's avatars across the metaverse, the company will also allow people to buy and sell limited NFTs using their avatars.
Metaverse Avatar Renaissance
"Ready Player Me" is just one player (pun intended) in a world full of companies vying for their own place in the business of creating and offering avatars. Among the biggest ones out there right now is NVIDIA, with their first attempt already making headlines.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang just released a digital version of himself, called an Omniverse Avatar, which was presented in a keynote address. Huang explained how his company's avatar works and also talked about how it will be "useful" for customers using services like retail, drive-thrus, and even video calls.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
