KPCB Edge is a team of builders, investing in seed stage founders working on emerging areas of technology, specifically, blockchains, virtual reality, digital health, drones, computer vision & mobile marketplaces. Edge is comprised of engineers, product managers, designers, and data scientists, with the ability to draw on KPCB’s decades of investing experience. The partners at Edge spend two days each week investing in seed stage companies, and the rest of their time to build tools and products for the founders they invest in.  The Edge team is focused on building software to  address recurring challenges of early-stage founders, such as recruiting, financing, and operations. Edge takes a software defined approach to venture capital, based on the belief that at the earliest stages of company building, founders can be helped as much by great software as by great people.

KPCB Edge

RRE Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies across various sectors. RRE Ventures invests in early-stage companies, often participating in Seed and Series A funding rounds. They look for innovative technology solutions and scalable business models.

RRE Ventures

Seedcamp is Europe's seed fund, identifying and investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. The Seedcamp Nation includes over 400 startups building breakout businesses that change the way people live, interact and buy and includes publicly listed UiPath, Wise, and unicorns Revolut, Hopin, Sorare, Pleo, and wefox along with fast-growing businesses such as Grover, viz.ai and Ezra.  Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder's vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support and a global network built upon more than a decade's experience backing exceptional talent. Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder's vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support, and a global network built upon more than a decade's experience backing exceptional talent.

Seedcamp

Boost VC is an early stage venture capital firm with $200m AUM+, investing in deep tech: aerospace, VR/AR, energy, climate, robotics, crypto, bio/health, AI/ML & more. Boost VC leads the first round of $2M or less.

Boost VC

Rothenberg Ventures invests in early-stage frontier technology startups. Its team of investors, operators, and community builders support founders through portfolio success programs across virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, space, next-generation hardware, and IoT.   It was founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Rothenberg Ventures

Presence Capital is an investment firm that believes virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are technologies that are going to transform our world. We invest in and support talented and passionate entrepreneurs that are utilizing these technologies to bring new and exceptional ways of communicating, working, and playing to market

Presence Capital

The Venture Reality Fund drives innovation and investment at the intersection of immersive, spatial, and intelligent computing for consumer and enterprise sectors.

The Venture Reality Fund/VRF

Luma Launch is an early-stage fund with an Accelerator Program aimed at surfacing the most notable startups and entrepreneurial minds.

Luma Launch

IMO Ventures is a privately held venture capital and seed investing company across China and the US.

IMO Ventures

Based in Silicon Valley and Beijing, Outpost Capital is a venture fund focusing on VR/AR, Blockchain and new frontier technology.

Outpost Capital

Upfront Ventures is proud to be an early investor and long-term partner to the most exciting founders and startups. Founded in 1996 in Los Angeles with investing professionals based in LA, San Francisco, and Paris, Upfront has backed standout teams across all technology sectors, including Ring (acq. by Amazon), TrueCar (NASDAQ: TRUE), Bird, Maker Studios (acq by Disney), GOAT, Apeel Sciences, thredUP, Invoca and Kyriba (acq by Bridgepoint). We invest about half of our capital in the fast-growing Southern California ecosystem, with the balance across the country as well as investments in Europe and Israel. Upfront Ventures is led by Managing Partners Yves Sisteron, Mark Suster, and Kara Nortman.

Upfront Ventures

Greycroft is a venture capital firm that focuses on technology start-ups and investments in the Internet and mobile markets. With offices in two of the most important business hubs in the world, New York and Los Angeles Greycroft uniquely positioned to serve entrepreneurs who have chosen us as their partners. The firm leverages an extensive network of media and technology industry connections to help entrepreneurs gain visibility, build strategic relationships, bring their products to market, and build successful businesses.  Greycroft manages in excess of $1 billion and has made over 200 investments since its inception in leading companies including Acorns, App Annie, Bird, Botkeeper, Bright Health, Boxed, Braintree, Buddy Media, Everything But The House, Extreme Reach, Huffington Post, Icertis, JW Player, Maker Studios, Plated, Scopely, Shipt, TheRealReal, Thrive Market, Trunk Club, Venmo, WideOrbit, and Yeahka. Greycroft has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

Greycroft

Apply to invest alongside the syndicate: https://angel.co/l/2597P1

AAFM

Kleiner Perkins is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in early-stage, growth, and incubation companies. The firm continues that legacy, investing in founders with bold ideas that span industries and continents, partnering with them from inception to IPO and beyond to maximize the potential of their ideas. They also focus on early computer firms using their devices and programming and service companies. It also invests in the digital, life sciences, and healthcare industries.

Kleiner Perkins

Maveron is a consumer-only venture capital firm. Founded in 1998 by Dan Levitan and Howard Schultz, the firm has offices in San Francisco and Seattle. Maveron investments include Zulily, Allbirds, Common, August Home, eBay, Capella Education, General Assembly, and Trupanion. Maveron's name was coined from the words ''maverick'' and ''vision.'' Maveron funds seed and Series A companies that empower consumers to live on their terms. Based in SF and Seattle and invest coast-to-coast. Maveron has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

Maveron

NTT DOCOMO Ventures is the venture capital arm of NTT DOCOMO, Inc. specializing in investments in incubation, early stage, middle stage, and later/pre-IPO stage companies. It prefers to invest in the field of information technology, telecommunications, content platform services, battery power, authentication security, BigData, a solution with devices, cloud, and communication platforms. The firm invests in and outside of Japan. It seeks to invest up to about USD $2 million to USD $3 million per investment. It prefers to seek minority stakes of around 20% or less per portfolio. The firm seeks to exit its investments through sales of stocks or transfer of shares to DOCOMO and NTT Group companies. It also runs an accelerator program called DOCOMO Incubation Program. Docomo Innovation Ventures, previously known as NTT Investment Partners Inc., was established on February 20, 2008, and is based in Minato, Chiba, Japan.

NTT DOCOMO Ventures

Superfly is an entertainment company and creative agency that produces live events and creates strategic multiplatform experiences for brands. The company’s work includes Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Outside Lands Festival, The Great GoogaMooga, and Life is Good Festival. Superfly was co-founded by Kerry Black, Rick Farman, and Jonathan Mayers in 1996 and is headquartered in New York, United States with offices in San Francisco and Chicago.

Superfly

GC VR Gaming Tracker Fund invests in virtual reality, augmented reality, games and e-sports.

GC VR Gaming Tracker Fund

GFR Fund is a San Francisco-based venture capital fund that invests in early-stage startups that are disrupting the consumer entertainment industry. GFR Fund is managed by GREE VR Capital, an affiliate of GREE Inc., a global leader in the mobile gaming industry. With over a decade of experience driving innovators in multi-platform entertainment, we see emerging technologies such as VR, AR, AI, Video Streaming and Blockchain as powerful tools that will propel the entertainment industry into a new generation of consumable content. We are looking for talented entrepreneurs who share our passion and values to help realize their vision and expand their businesses globally.

GFR Fund

Created in 2017, Convivialité Ventures, is the venture arm of Pernod Ricard and is based in San Francisco . By nurturing entrepreneurship, Convivialité  plays a key role in the development of innovative and inspiring new offerings that not only embrace, but also shape, the future evolution of socializing.

Convivialite Ventures

XRM Media is an independent media technology company dedicated to servicing the next generation of Gen-Z and Millennial consumers.  We create content that entertains, inspires, and nurtures communities around the world.  XRM Media develops new platforms and intellectual properties that push the envelope of storytelling, ultimately weaving technology and content closer together for a new generation of viewers and creators.

XRM Media

A music/tech investment group focused on raising the value of music through technology

Raised In Space Enterprises

Griffin Gaming Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on investing across the broad gaming ecosystem.

Griffin Gaming Partners

Avex USA is a music company that focuses on music creative, publishing, and music tech investments.

Avex USA

We invest along generational themes from Gen Alpha, Gen Z, Millennials onwards & follow that behavior as it evolves over time. We believe that human behavior is constantly evolving due to generational shifts and technology adoption. Recent historical events have accelerated behavior changes amongst different generational cohorts in very different ways. We bring product, growth, and venture experience to early stage startups that are building solutions to meet these changes.

Progression Fund

Rogue VC is a venture capital firm focused on frontier technology, virtual culture, and bold founders with big ideas.

Rogue VC

Proton Enterprises is a Venture Developer empowering entrepreneurs that are shaping tomorrow's world for the better. Proton focuses on disruptive technologies to empower entrepreneurship, taking on projects of integrity to make a positive impact in the world. We align not only our capital, but our time and talent, working side-by-side with our entrepreneurs on the business mission at hand.   Focus: Financial Technology, IP Commercialization, and Health & Fitness

Proton Enterprises

Wave

Wave focuses on interactive virtual experiences with a mission to help artists make money at the intersection of gaming and entertainment. Wave’s technology enables musicians to create lifelike avatars of themselves that can “perform” their music on a virtual stage. Most of these virtual shows take place either on the company’s YouTube channel, but Wave’s apps let users tune in on gaming consoles, phones or even the Oculus Rift VR headset. While watching a Wave, viewers can log in to comment in a chat function and give live feedback to the avatar performers.

Wave is a virtual events platform that enables users to build avatars of themselves that can perform in an interactive virtual environment. The concerts are broadcast on major platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook, or through its app on gaming consoles, phones, or the Oculus Rift VR headset. As of June 2020, the platform had hosted 50 concerts and planned to expand to new markets such as Japan and China. The platform is free for viewers.

Metaverse Experience Platforms

Wave Financial to Tokenize $20M Worth of Bourbon for New Whiskey Fund

Wave is a virtual events platform that enables users to build avatars of themselves that can perform in an interactive virtual environment. The concerts are broadcast on major platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook, or through its app on gaming consoles, phones, or the Oculus Rift VR headset. As of June 2020, the platform had hosted 50 concerts and planned to expand to new markets such as Japan and China. The platform is free for viewers.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35039">October 2024,</a> the company announced its return as a VR concert platform, aiming to be a 24/7 entertainment hub and virtual music festival in its new iteration.Key customers and partnershipsArtists such as Justin Bieber, the Weeknd, John Legend, and Lindsey Sterling have used its platform to host virtual concerts. In April 2020, the company announced partnerships with Warner Music Group and Jay Z’s Roc Nation to produce concerts with their pool of talent.In January 2023, Wave partnered with VR headset creator Pico to develop a series of immersive 3D concert experiences with world-renowned artists, for Pico's line of consumer headsets.&nbsp;

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

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 Wave, the VR concert platform, has announced that it will transition to 2D formats amid the pandemic. The company aims to become a round-the-clock entertainment hub and virtual music festival in its latest version. Its services will now be available to mobile, 2D streaming, and 3D VR users. Artists such as Kaash Paige, LATASHÁ, Brian McKnight Jr., slenderbodies, Mazen, Reid Speed, and Black Gryph0n are signed with Wave. The platform had a closed beta launch on October 17, 2024.
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 Wave's return to the VR concert space <a href="https: 
//musicx.substack.com/p/-music-startup-wave-ditches-vr-as"> after three years </a> signals a strategic move to capitalize on advances in immersive technology and the growing demand for virtual entertainment experiences. The focus on artist partnerships and the deeper immersion of VR reflects an effort to differentiate itself through unique, interactive content while leveraging its early VR expertise to drive product development and audience engagement.

Wave

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless