Genies

Genies claims to be the world’s largest avatar technology company and provides tools to create avatars across metaverse and social media platforms. The company started rolling out its avatar creator tools in private beta in April 2022, with plans to add avatar home and social experience creation tools to its offering.

Genies also offers “The Warehouse” (August 2022), an NFT fashion storefront developed in collaboration with Dapper Labs on the Flow blockchain, which allows users to trade and personalize virtual wearables for digital avatars. Genies charges a 5% fee on each NFT sale and shares the remainder with creators, which is considered favorable for creators compared to the ~50% fee charged for NFTs by Meta on Horizon Worlds.

Initiatives taken to bolster third-party creation of avatars include:

1) The launch of the Creator and Partner Network for brands to commercialize digital avatars (July 2024)

2) The launch of “The Workshop,” equipping artists with tools and guides to produce Genies-ready digital fashion (September 2023)

3) The launch of its developer kit, which includes an Avatar Framework, XR Compatibility, and a GenAI Gameplay Bot, enabling creators to build personalized avatar experiences and contribute to an interoperable ecosystem of experiences, all connected by "Things" that users can collect, earn, and use for self-expression (May 2023)

4) The launch of the Developer Engagement Fund to reward developers that build AR experiences via Genies’ developer kit. The total fund size is USD 1 million. Additionally, the company launched an AI-powered feature to create personalized avatars for celebrities in August 2023.

5) The launch of the Genies’ Trait Framework, a system designed to add depth and dynamism to digital identities in the Genies Ecosystem (January 2024). The framework aims to represent not just the visual aspect of an avatar but also its personality, quirks, and other characteristics, with developers being provided an API to read and write Trait values.

Key customers and partnerships

The company has benefited from high-profile partnerships with celebrities and athletes who have used Genies’ avatars for social media posts and other applications, such as stand-ins for online events. These include partnerships with Universal Music, Warner Music Group, NFLPA, MLBPI, NBPA, and celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Rihanna, Migos, Cardi B, and J Balvin.

Funding and financials

In its latest funding round (April 2022), Genies raised USD 150 million in funding from Silver Lake, valuing the company at USD 1 billion. The funds were raised to expand its engineering team and invest further in its core technology.