The innovative platform known for creating three-dimensional digital avatars for exploring virtual worlds, Ready Player Me, has closed a $56 million Series B funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
With more than 20,000 artificially created faces already in the company’s database, Ready Player Me provides a set of tools for creating a digital avatar to travel the metaverse, using AI to sculpt one based on photos, or letting the user manually set up the look of the avatar. Users can import their virtual selves into any of the platforms and games that are compatible.
In addition to monetizing in-game items and accessories, the startup wants to become the industry standard for creating custom virtual humans. The 3,000+ apps that Ready Player Me has reportedly released are already triple the amount it claimed when it closed a $13 million round in December.
This time, there are more than a dozen investors on top of Andreessen, including several well-known figures from the entertainment and digital technology industries, such as Justin Kan, the D’Amelio family, David Baszucki, the co-founder of Roblox, and the co-founders of King Games, Sebastian Knutsson, and Ricardo Zacconi. Major companies, including Warner Bros., Dior, and Adidas, have already picked Ready Player Me as their partner in advancing their own metaverse initiatives.
“What will unlock the true metaverse experience is interoperability between games, worlds, and applications and a consistent identity for users across all experiences,” said Ready Player Me CEO Timmu Tõke.
With the additional funding, Ready Player Me will be able to continue expanding the avatar system to give developers more flexibility and develop new tools to aid in making money from avatar assets and for individual creators to participate in the cross-game avatar marketplace.
The demand for virtual characters to populate the metaverse has skyrocketed lately. Startups that offer interactive AI-powered virtual beings and human-controlled avatars are flush with funding from investors and new customers.
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