Ready Player Me has raised $56 million in a Series B round of investments led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Ready Player Me is an avatar platform for metaverse projects. Along with Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat Ventures, other investors include Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch, David Baszucki, co-founder of Roblox, and others.
The additional funding will be used to grow the team from its current 51 members. Furthermore, the funds will be used to build developer tools. This will enable businesses to make avatars that can be used in a variety of virtual environments.
Timmu Tõke, CEO of Ready Player Me, stated,
“What will unlock the true metaverse experience is interoperability between games, worlds and applications and a consistent identity for users across all experiences.”
According to Timmu, it’s crucial for people who utilize virtual worlds to design avatars that can be used throughout the metaverse and are not limited to a single game. With the additional funding, Ready Player Me will be able to scale the avatar system even further. It will provide developers with more customization options. Additionally, the money will be used to develop avatar asset monetization capabilities for game producers.
Jonathan Lai, general partner at a16z, said,
“Ready Player Me is loved by both developers and players as the largest platform for avatar-systems-as-a-service and is well on their way to building the interoperable identity protocol for the open Metaverse.”
Lai further stated,
“We’ve been deeply impressed by the team’s blend of developer empathy, technical chops, and entrepreneurial pragmatism, and couldn’t be more excited to partner with them on this journey.”
In December of 2021, Ready Player Me raised $13 million in an initial funding round. Moreover, the firm has since worked with Tencent, Huawei, HTC, Wargaming, and Verizon.
Ready Player Me has over 3000 apps integrated into its system. Furthermore, in order to provide cross-game avatar assets across the metaverse, the firm already collaborates with independent producers and clothing companies. Some of them are Adidas, New Balance, Dior, Pull&Bear, and Warner Brothers (Dune movie clothes).
In addition, developers are given an avatar system by Ready Player Me. This frees them to concentrate on building environments and experiences. Additionally, the platform offers distribution through its network and creates new revenue streams through the selling of interchangeable avatar assets and a cross-game economy.