Augmented reality start-up Jadu has raised $36 million to create a Web 3 gaming platform which allows players to roam the real world with their NFT avatars. The Series A round was led by Bain Capital and General Catalyst Partners, with additional funds coming from LG Tech Ventures and Alumni Ventures. Jadu’s AR mobile app will connect to players’ Ethereum wallets, letting them turn their 3D animated NFTs into playable avatars. The app is expected to emerge in beta form this summer.
“Adding an avatar in the middle of [a player’s] view is a novel concept for AR, and it’s kind of counterintuitive,” said Asad J. Malik, Founder and CEO of Jadu. “However, when you do it, suddenly it becomes really effective because your AR becomes super visual. You can actually see a representation of a character going around the room doing things.”
Jadu plans to use the new funds to grow its team and build out the gaming platform. According to Malik, Jadu is also focused on releasing its first collection of in-house avatar NFTs, which it expects to be its main source of revenue for this fiscal year.
Malik has high hopes for Jadu’s metaverse, because as he says, the future of the metaverse is not virtual reality, but augmented reality.
“People are building out the metaverse as this interoperable virtual world,” added Malik. “We are building out what we call the ‘Mirrorverse’ as the AR reflection of that, and the ‘Mirrorverse’ exists on the physical planet—it exists on top of the world as we know it, and we think that’s super compelling.”
(All information was provided by dot.LA)
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