Where will we see more funding?
So yet, funding for metaverse-related areas has only been a start. To develop out the metaverse, there will need to be investment in a variety of other areas.
Jed Strong, CEO of gaming payments business Tiv said that the primary areas positioned for investment in the metaverse include hardware, networking, processing power, virtual platforms, payments, and content and assets. According to Strong, it’s also not something that will be fully realized anytime soon.
According to Strong, the metaverse will be something like to a massive-scale interoperable network of real-time 3D worlds when completely completed.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are attracting investors’ attention, with firms opening specific crypto funds, Strong reports. Within the metaverse’s, crypto and blockchain technology enable all forms of payments and transactions.
Users may be able to have a consistent identity across the metaverse thanks to blockchain technology. For example, a player’s identity may remain consistent if they go from the Roblox realm to the Fortnite game.
New means of conducting commerce will likely be a key aspect of the metaverse
According to Brian Biggott, co-founder of social metaverse firm Octi. New means of conducting commerce will likely be a key aspect of the metaverse. Using augmented reality technology, businesses can make purchasing and selling in the metaverse a more immersive and social experience. Companies may, for example, know what consumers enjoy based on what they’re producing in a virtual environment. Rather than watching what websites they visit to provide tailored adverts.
“Rightfully so,” Strong added, “there’s a lot of investment around crypto and blockchain.” “I believe what I’m most interested in seeing is how we better those permanent real-time connections and high-bandwidth low-latency experiences, which appears to be getting less attention.” Because we’re still in the ‘crawl phase’ of universally scaled virtual experiences for an infinite number of users right now.”
It will require significant investments in networking and computing power. In order to enable thousands of people to experience a virtual environment in real time.
Platforms could lead the way in that, Strong said.
”At a core level, the technology just does not yet exist for there to be hundreds. Much alone millions of individuals participating in a shared synchronous experience,” wrote Matthew Ball, co-founder of Ball Metaverse Research Partners, in an essay.
Funding to metaverse startups so far
The majority of metaverse-related venture capital has gone to gaming. That makes sense, considering that gaming is already digital and interactive, making it a natural gateway into the virtual world.
Video game engine Mythical Games, decentralized gaming platform The Sandbox. And NFT game Genopets are among the startups that have received investment.
Companies are also emphasizing their focus on the metaverse in their branding. With 150 companies in the Crunchbase database mentioning the metaverse in their company description. 43 of which were created in 2021.
Companies that include “metaverse” in their description on Crunchbase raised about $96 million this year, largely through pre-seed, seed, and Series A investment rounds.
People are spending record amounts of time gaming, and augmented reality has been around for years. This year, non-fungible tokens became widespread, and people are spending record amounts of time gaming.
Roblox, a popular gaming platform that went public earlier this year, is a proto-metaverse in that it allows users to create virtual worlds and games that others may play in. Last month, Chipotle announced the launch of its first virtual restaurant on Roblox, and rapper Lil Nas X even had a concert there last year.
The reason there is so much potential is because there is so much ground to cover to make the metaverse a reality.
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