FI Group is a management consulting firm that offers research tax credit, export aid, funds and innovation management services.

FI Group

Established in 2014, Outlier Ventures is one of the first VC firms dedicated to investing in the emerging crypto ecosystem. Since launching its Base Camp accelerator in 2019, Outlier Ventures has received over 5,000 applications for its highly sought after virtual accelerator and has helped raise over $350 million in seed funding for its growing portfolio of 220+ high-profile projects from across the world, such as Crucible and Biconomy. In addition, Outlier Ventures has supported the launch and growth of several billion-dollar crypto economies including Fetch.ai, Boson Protocol, Secret Network, Blox Move, Swash and DIA Data. Their portfolio includes notable projects across DeFi, NFTs and blockchain infrastructure with a focus on emergent Metaverse use cases such as NFT-based digital couture fashion brands, avatar marketplaces, decentralized music publishing platforms, play-to-earn games, augmented reality social positioning protocols, and more. Outlier Ventures has expanded its Base Camp program to partner with leading protocols such as Aptos, Filecoin / IPFS, Polygon, and Polkadot along with FARFETCH, to host dedicated accelerator programs for these Web3 ecosystems along with Ascent, Outlier Ventures’ advisory offering targeted at later stage teams. Through its blockchain agnostic approach, Outlier Ventures has achieved record growth, doubled its cohort intake year after year, and is on target to accelerate well over 100 startups in 2022, making it one of the most active investors in the space by deal volume and the most active Web3 accelerator globally and top 3 crypto investor globally by volume of investment. Since its inception, Outlier Ventures has always viewed its portfolio as an open stack of technologies that contribute to a new web paradigm, referred to as Web3, based on principles that prioritize the sovereignty of the user, their data and digital wealth, over platform and shareholder supremacy. In January of 2021, Outlier Ventures published its thesis on the imminent arrival of the Metaverse, outlining how Web3 would serve as an operating system for an Open Metaverse.

Outlier Ventures

Inveready is a leading alternative asset manager in Spain - investing in early-stage VC, growth VC, venture debt, strategic equity in listed companies, infrastructure and private equity - providing financing solutions to companies throughout their life-cycle.  Founded in 2008, Inveready counts on 177 active companies, 61 exits and more than €1bn of assets under management.  Some of our portfolio companies have been acquired by multinationals such as Intel, Symantec, IBM, and Facebook, whilst others are listed in public markets such as NASDAQ, the Spanish BME Growth, AIM London, and Euronext Growth. (visit www.inveready.com for more information)

Inveready

GoHub Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund investing in founders with highly technological B2B software solutions from Seed to Series A all across Europe, North America and Latam.

GoHub Ventures

Inlea specializes in management consulting & business growth through advice & leading-edge legal, business, tech & HR solutions.

Inlea

Mango StartUp Studio operates as a fashion startup accelerator. Mango StartUp Studio, a real commitment to accelerate startups that will change the industry. All the resources and knowledge of a sector leader at the service of value-generating proposals.

Mango StartUp Studio

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Brinc is a leader in global venture acceleration and operates 15 multidisciplinary accelerator programs across seven countries. Brinc accelerates startups focused on blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, connected hardware, robotics, climate tech, clean energy, food technology, and Internet of Things (IoT) with a view to creating a more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive future. Brinc also supports corporations with distributed innovation strategies, sourcing of new startups and technologies, as well as venture-building Web3-enabled businesses. Global corporations (Manulife, Huawei, Schneider Electric, Puma, Batelco, Merck, Omantel, Linrun Group, Zhihui Park), government organizations (Hong Kong Science Park, NEOM, MBRIF, Guangdong Soft-tech Park), tertiary institutions (HK City University, National University of Singapore), fast-growing companies (Animoca Brands, DayDayCook), and leading venture funds (Artesian, LeverVC, Tamkeen, EDB) have all run programs with Brinc. In 2021, Brinc announced a series of venture funds to invest in high-potential early-stage companies through accelerators and provide LPs with a dedicated innovation platform and access to Series A+ co-investment opportunities.

Brinc

Union Avatars

Union Avatars is a company dedicated to creating avatars for the metaverse.

Union Avatars offers a free tool for users to create realistic full-body avatars for games, virtual reality, and metaverse platforms with 170 outfit presets to choose from. The company’s SDK can be integrated with the Unity and Unreal game engines, allowing avatar lip-syncing. Other features include support for half-body avatars for VR, with hand-tracking enabled. Furthermore, the company claims that its platform is able to create a realistic avatar in under a minute.

Metaverse Experience Platforms

UNION AVATARS on LinkedIn: Union Avatars | Realistic Full Body Avatar Maker

Union Avatars offers a free tool for users to create realistic full-body avatars for games, virtual reality, and metaverse platforms with 170 outfit presets to choose from. The company’s SDK can be integrated with the Unity and Unreal game engines, allowing avatar lip-syncing. Other features include support for half-body avatars for VR, with hand-tracking enabled. Furthermore, the company claims that its platform is able to create a realistic avatar in under a minute.The company's offering also includes UnionID, a digital identity wallet built with blockchain technology for users to carry their identity across multiple third-party platforms. UnionID is a nested NFT, in which users can add all their private identities and also add other NFTs which are different representations of their avatars (voxel-based, cartoonish or realistic avatars).The company generates revenue via monthly subscriptions, priced at USD 9 and USD 99, alongside custom pricing for larger enterprises.Key customers and partnershipsAs of January 2024, the company’s platform was used by over 150 companies, with notable enterprises, including Accenture, Telefonica, and Kinetix.Funding and financialsIn its latest funding round (September 2022), Union Avatars raised EUR 1.2 million (~USD 1.2 million) in funding led by Inveready and Fi Group. The funds were raised primarily for product development and international expansion.

Gather is a virtual space with web-based video calling capabilities, combined with a 2D pixel art-based map and characters that allow individuals to carry out natural conversations in a multitude of settings (office, university, etc.). The company was a part of the Y Combinator Summer 2019 cohort. The platform also offers private virtual meeting spaces with chat, whiteboards, document, and screen sharing features. Further, Gather also offers integrations with other enterprise applications, such as Slack, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. The company claims to have superior compatibility with spatial technology due to its natively built video conferencing system.It operates with a freemium subscription model that is free for up to 10 users, with paid plans starting at USD 7 per month for up to 500 people. The company also generates revenue for virtual conferences (free for up to 10 users), with paid plans starting at USD 3 per user per day.The company has a long-term vision for the metaverse to freely make work and educational opportunities available worldwide. In line with its vision, Gather has hosted over 20,000 virtual professional events, including academic conferences, job fairs, and professional societies (November 2021).Key customer and partnershipsAs of January 2024, the platform was used by over 1,000 teams, including notable enterprises, such as Y Combinator, Yelp, and Notion.Funding and financialsGather raised USD 50 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures in <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6425">November 2021</a>. The fresh funds were expected to be funneled toward expanding its operations and business reach.Key competitors: None under the same stage.

Gather

Mytaverse offers a hardware-agnostic 3D metaverse platform that enables enterprises to digitally host a wide range of activities, such as meetings, conferences, training simulations, and tradeshows. The company also allows for the creation of branded metaverses in the form of functioning environments or digital twins. Mytaverse also provides support for CRM integrations and customer profiles, with support for 50 users on any given virtual world. Further, Mytaverse claims that its tech allows for the creation of photorealistic spaces.Key customers and partnershipsNotable customers included Nike, PepsiCo, Dolby and Dassault Aviation, among others.Funding and financialsIn April 2022, Mytaverse raised USD 7.6 million in a seed funding round led by Blumberg Capital. The funds were raised to accelerate product development, expand sales and tech teams, and further expand interactions with brands and support strategic partnerships. As part of the deal, David Blumberg (founder and managing partner, Blumberg Capital) and John Paul Milciunas (general partner, Baselayer Ventures) were expected to join Mytaverse’s board.

Mytaverse

Alta is the game studio that developed Township Tale, an open-world VR multiplayer game set in a medieval fantasy world. Users can engage in multiplayer experiences that revolve around a wide range of activities such as cooking, crafting, PvE, mining, blacksmithing, and carpentry. The game relies on procedural generation, a method to combine computer and human-generated content on a large scale for mass content creation as its key differentiator.The company generates revenue via 1) sales of its game on the Meta Quest Store, priced at USD 10 and 2) sales of in-game cosmetics, ranging from USD 10-80. Users can also show further support to the game devs via monthly donations of USD 10, with players receiving in-game currency (for the purchase of in-game cosmetics), exclusive in-game discounts and the ability to create a private PC server.In April 2024, the company disclosed that it was developing a dark fantasy-themed VR exclusive game, codenamed ‘Project 2’. Key customers and partnershipsAccording to data from MMO Stats, The company was estimated to have a total of ~850,000 players as of January 2024.Funding and financialsIn its most recent funding round (January 2022), the company raised USD 12.4 million in seed funding co-led by Makers Fund and Andreessen Horowitz. The round valued the company at USD 62 million and the fresh funds were expected to be used to expand its team, create new partnerships, and further develop its technology.

Alta

BitDegree is a cryptocurrency learning platform that offers Learnoverse, a gamified and interactive crypto learning metaverse powered by the blockchain, where users will be able to create their own avatars, collect NFTs exclusive to Learnoverse, explore a virtual world (CryptoDegree City) that is divided into topic-based districts with each building representing a specific educational course on crypto, earn tokens through learning, and eventually obtain crypto-degrees. Course creators will be able to purchase NFT land on the platform and create NFT buildings to represent their courses, and its novel tokenomics will allow instructors to earn from their courses without charging the user.Key customers and partnershipsIn September 2022, the company partnered with web3 mobile development infrastructure provider Mirror World to create a course about Web3 gaming within Learnoverse, and NFT platform Lympo, to enable creators to mint NFTs within Leanoverse.Funding and financialsBitDegree raised over USD 1 million in funding from Japanese/Singaporean venture investor Mistletoe in June 2022. The funds were raised to create innovative methods of learning blockchain, crypto, and Web3-related topics within Learnoverse.

BitDegree

Star Atlas is a space-themed metaverse gaming platform built on the Solana blockchain and Unreal Engine 5. The game allows users to interact, organize, and explore unknown regions in space, alongside joining factions and harvesting resources. The platform includes assets that are tokenized, which provides users ownership over these unique assets and enables them to generate income through these assets. Star Atlas' in-game economy and governance is run using its native currencies, POLIS and ATLAS, and, as of May 2022, the platform had nearly 100,000 players.In May 2024, the company announced that it would launch Star Atlas on mobile Android and iOS by the end of the year.The company also developed the SAGE Labs browser-based open-world game in August 2023, which focuses on deep space resource extraction and crafting.Key customers and partnershipsIn July 2023, the company partnered with blockchain indexer Hello Moon, aiming to bolster the scalability and robustness of Star Atlas real-time data handling capabilities, effectively replacing its proprietary in-house solution. Additionally, the company partnered with Web3 company MetaGravity in the same month to scale its concurrent player count on a single server to 30,000 from 5,000.Funding and financialsIn December 2021, Star Atlas received USD 3 million in funding from Animoca Brands in the form of a purchase commitment of Star Atlas NFT spaceships. The NFT spaceships sold to Animoca Brands were part of Star Atlas’ Galactic Asset Offering (GAO) and all the revenue from asset sales from its GAO was expected to be used to further develop the Star Atlas metaverse.

Star Atlas

Platforms that offer collaborative 2D and 3D environments for enterprise and education-related use cases

Platforms that facilitate entertainment-focused virtual events and concerts

Platforms that focus on multiplayer gaming experiences in virtual worlds

Platforms that focus on social interaction, experience creation, and virtual land purchases

Platforms that enable the creation of avatars that are used as digital identities in metaverse platforms

Platforms that offer virtual worlds for multiplayer social gaming experiences enable users to create experiences and conduct transactions (e.g. buying virtual land)

Some solutions in the gaming platforms segment use AI for non-playable characters (NPCs)

Some gaming and social metaverses are decentralized, with features such as play-to-earn and NFT minting

Social gaming and pure-play social platforms facilitate virtual land transactions using crypto

Most solutions in this hub use AR/VR for virtual events, enterprise, and social/gaming use cases

Virtual worlds and web3 are the primary enabling technologies for the metaverse industry

Work platforms offer virtual spaces for enterprise use cases

Union Avatars

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