COPRESENCE

Copresence offers a digital avatar solution bringing likeness and emotions to the connected world. The Swiss-tech company’s powerful AI and software platform lets users easily generate a 3D version of themselves using just a smartphone, for use virtually everywhere. The company’s industry-leading technology offers the gaming, VR/AR and video conferencing industries the perfect solution for photorealistic 3D avatar creation. Copresence is dedicated to elevating virtual communication to a more natural and personal level, transforming how we appear and interact in digital spaces like gaming, virtual/augmented reality, and beyond.

Copresence, a Switzerland-based company, offers the Copresence platform, which utilizes AI-powered scanning technology on smartphones to generate photorealistic 3D models of users' faces. The Copresence app allows users to scan their faces from various angles and creates an avatar in under two minutes. Users can generate avatars for use across VR and the metaverse, incorporating high-precision tracking technology to capture realistic facial expressions and allowing users to control their avatars in real-time across the metaverse. Further, Copresence is compatible with the Unity and Unreal game engines. For virtual meetings, Copresence offers an immersive atmosphere where users can see themselves in real-time through their webcam or smartphone.

Metaverse Experience Platforms

Copresence

Copresence Introduces AI Avatar Rendering to Its Digital Avatar Platform

Copresence, a Switzerland-based company, offers the Copresence platform, which utilizes AI-powered scanning technology on smartphones to generate photorealistic 3D models of users' faces. The Copresence app allows users to scan their faces from various angles and creates an avatar in under two minutes. Users can generate avatars for use across VR and the metaverse, incorporating high-precision tracking technology to capture realistic facial expressions and allowing users to control their avatars in real-time across the metaverse. Further, Copresence is compatible with the Unity and Unreal game engines. For virtual meetings, Copresence offers an immersive atmosphere where users can see themselves in real-time through their webcam or smartphone.The company noted that this can help reduce “Zoom fatigue” and reduce bandwidth usage by up to 98%. The avatars are compatible across multiple devices, including VR headsets, PCs, and smartphones.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27332">March 2024</a>, the company added AI avatar rendering on its platform, allowing for creation of Computer graphics (CG) avatars, suitable for video games, and AI-generated avatars for XR-based applications and video conferencing.Key customers and partnershipsThe company noted that its platform has garnered attention from Fortune 500 companies and AAA gaming studios.Funding and financialsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/22947">October 2023</a>, Copresence raised USD 6 million in a seed funding round. Funds were earmarked for headcount expansion, alongside improving its platform and mobile app. Previously, in May 2023, the company announced that it had secured USD 2.75 million in seed funding.

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

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<div>
 Copresence, a digital avatar creation company, recently introduced AI avatar rendering on its platform. This feature equips the platform with the capability of creating two kinds of avatars: Computer graphics (CG) avatars and AI-generated avatars. CG avatars, adaptable and optimal for game engines, are distinctly different from AI avatars that focus on photorealism and user facial resemblance, making them excellent for XR-based applications and video conferencing.
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 The avatars generated are similar in quality to those of Apple’s <a href="https: 
//support.apple.com/en-us/118496"> Personas </a> , although it avoids requiring a face scan from the Vision Pro and limitations to video conferencing applications. A key barrier to avatar realism is the modeling of hair physics, which appear to be "stuck" on to a user's head and appear to be unnatural, given current limitations in real-time rendering.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Copresence

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