In a Series B investment round, Ready Player Me, a platform that lets users create virtual characters for use across the metaverse, has raised $56 million. Konvoy Ventures, Collab Currency, Taavet Hinrikus, Sten Tamkivi’s Plural Platform, and comedian Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Ventures participated in the round, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). According to the press release, high-profile angel investors, including Punk6529, Twitch co-founder Justin Kan, and Roblox co-founder David Baszucki, also participated in the round. Timmu Tõke, co-founder and CEO of the platform, initiated the project in 2014 with Wolf3D. Users can build avatars on its platform, and developers can connect the platform to their apps to get ready-to-use avatars for free. More than 3,000 partners have incorporated the Ready Player Me platform, according to Tõke, including VRChat, Somnium Space, and Nike-owned NFT studio RTFKT. Famous fashion labels like Dior and Adidas collaborate with the company to provide its customers with the option to create personalized avatars. Next Stage – Content Tools According to Tõke, the next stage is to provide “content tools” for avatars to allow anyone to design their own accessories. They are developing tools to grow the platform so that every individual artist or designer may participate, generate assets, and then sell them on the open market. In terms of their business strategy, Tõke claims that Ready Player Me relies on ...
