3D Avatar Platform Ready Player Me Closes $13 Million Round To Support Expansion Of Cross-App Avatar Technology

The Series A led by investors including the Co-Founder of Wise, co-Founder of Teleport and Co-Founder of GitHub will support the avatar platform’s plans for global expansion

Ready Player Me, an avatar platform for the metaverse that allows users to explore virtual worlds with one consistent identity, announced a Series A funding round of $13 million to expand their team across the globe. The round was supported by notable investors including Taavet+Sten, a firm led by Taavet Hinrikus, the co-founder of fintech giant Wise and Sten Tamkivi, Teleport co-founder.

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Ready Player Me is a connective passport for the metaverse – it is 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. Empowered by the Ready Player Me identity technology, the metaverse is primed to reach its full potential.

The funding will be used to continue the company’s global growth and establish their presence as the default avatar system for the metaverse. In the months to come, avatars will be usable in even more virtual worlds than the 900 supported today. 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.

Other notable investors in the round include 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, Hubert Thieblot, Anand Agarawala, Joachim Hedenius, Marvin Liao, Kaarel Kotkas, SomniumSpace and NFT influencers including Gmoney and Niftynaut. Past funding rounds have been supported by Trind VC, Sebastien Borget, the Sandbox Founder, Peter Vesterbacka, a former Rovio executive and Joshua Duyan from CTRL Labs.

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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 the Warner Brothers, Dior, and New Balance. Most recently, Ready Player Me partnered with Deadmau5, Pixelynx, and artist Smearballs to bring the Head5 NFT collection to the platform.

The inter-world capabilities of the Ready Player Me technology is of notable significance for both NFT’s and virtual fashion. The ability for NFT wearables to be usable across the metaverse will in-turn have a direct impact on value – raising a tremendous opportunity for NFT creators and fashion companies. With this funding, the company recognizes the growth of their business will open doors for many.

“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.”

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