Avalon raises $13 million to build an interoperable metaverse of the world – Hypergrid Business
Florida-based Avalon Corp. will raise $1,300 to build a gaming platform that can leverage the metaverse, which features a world of interoperable worlds with a variety of intellectual properties to be built using technologies including blockchain and game engines. We raised $10,000.
According to a press release, Avalon Corp has unique experience in solving the problems creators and designers will face in the near future, and is building the tools, frameworks, and more to make it possible. CEO Sean Pinnock said the company is working to democratize game creation using blockchain as a tool.
According to Pinnock, it’s gaming companies, and no one else, that should be building the metaverse.
“We know that engagement is driven by play, creativity, and human connectivity – all important elements that are severely lacking in most self-proclaimed metaverses. And this is why the inevitable convergence of technologies that will emerge in the metaverse will be established through games. Developers,” he said in the announcement.
He has a point. After all, the global video game industry is now larger than the film, music, and book industries combined. And video games, especially first-person multiplayer video games, have exactly the skills and engagement the metaverse needs. And companies like Second Life, Facebook, and Microsoft haven’t been able to take advantage of it until now.
This is also a good sign that the company doesn’t expect to build everything itself.
“Whatever our digital future is, it is clear that no single company can build it,” Jeff Butler, chief product officer at Avalon Corp., said in the announcement.
According to a press release, the funding for Avalon Corp is led by Bitkraft Ventures, Hashed, Delphi Digital, and Mechanism Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Yield Guild Games, Merit Circle, Avocado Guild, and Morning Star Ventures. Backers also include industry veterans with visionary perspectives, including Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, gaming legend Dennis Fong, Charlie Songhurst, former head of corporate strategy at Microsoft, and Robin Jung, former CEO of gaming company Pearl Abyss.
“The connected world is evolving at an unprecedented pace, ultimately evolving into a Darwinian game where the most suitable and useful platforms thrive and survive,” said Jun Park, senior research fellow at investment firm Hashed. “We are excited to support Avalon Corp., led by industry veterans with a visionary perspective, to help the company realize its potential and pioneer the next generation of interoperable world.”
Of course, I’ve always thought that OpenSim would pioneer the next world of interoperability. But OpenSim will teach us something about how to move users, content, and messages between different worlds in a completely decentralized way.
Nonetheless, it’s good to see that people are still investing in the Metaverse project. For a while it seemed like everyone was throwing in the towel and rebranding themselves as AI companies.