Aiming to democratize access to the metaverse, Parisian startup METAV.RS has just picked up €3 million to boost the development of its content management platform.
The era of the metaverse is now and it’s giving brands heaps of new opportunities to create new experiences and attract audience growth. It’s being regarded as the new way to build brand identity and connect a wider community following. It’s not necessarily an easy thing to leverage though – generally requiring a high level of tech know-how and expertise with an expansive tech stack.
Aiming to make the metaverse more accessible and enable brands to manage their metaverse presence better, Paris-based METAV.RS was founded in January this year and has just scooped up €3 million.
Funding details
The previously bootstrapped company has secured a €3 million seed round, onboarding several French and foreign investment funds, experienced entrepreneurs, and a Web3 industry leader.
This seed round was led by Jsquare, a specialized Web3 fund based in Singapore, which was joined by consulting firm, Sia Partners – via its investment arm, Studio – and 50 Partners, an investment fund co-founded by 50 successful entrepreneurs.
METAV.RS also relies on renowned business angels such as David Balland, CoFounder of Ledger, Sébastien Borget, Co-Founder and COO of The Sandbox, Michael Amar, serial entrepreneur, Thibault Renouf, CEO of Partoo, Joel Hazan, Managing Director & Partner of BCG, Sébastien Lalevée, CEO of Financière Arbevel, and Jonathan Bordereau, CEO of Golden Bees and managing the web3 accelerator of 50 Partners.
Accessible metaverse content management
Created by Simon & Clément Foucher, Jérémie Salvucci, and Adrien De Lavenere-Lussan, METAV.RS’ white label solution facilitates the creation of NFTs and their sale via dedicated websites, e-shops, or marketplaces, and the creation of enriched customer experiences.
The no-code platform provides brands and agencies with a series of integrated apps, which enable them to, among other things, manage their own virtual worlds, or ‘miniverses.’ These are accessible from a web browser and allow users to discover a brand’s universe in an immersive way, interact with numerous elements of this universe and purchase dematerialized goods (NFTs) through virtual dressing rooms.
Clément Foucher, co-founder of METAV.RS: “The emergence of Web3 is decentralizing the web and enabling the creation of many new virtual universes. The challenge for brands is to find a simple way to initiate and manage their presence in these virtual universes, so that they can benefit from greater reach and an enhanced customer experience, while maintaining control of their brand image.
We are developing a tool that allows brands to easily manage their presence in the metaverse, a sort of metaverse CMS.”
The metaverse market, on a global scale, is only at the beginning of what is looking like an exciting story. Innovative technologies combining 3D, augmented and virtual reality, and blockchain is maturing and paving the way for new business cases – creating a lucrative and rapidly evolving market.
Owing to the inherently dynamic nature of the market, brands are facing challenges entering the market, but are increasingly aware of the need to get involved with it. It’s estimated that GenZ and Alpha, with a big digital identity, will spend about 4 hours per day in the metaverse by 2025 – the metaverse, therefore, is a powerful tool for any brand.
METAV.RS aims to democratize access to the metaverse for brands and allow marketing teams to integrate content simply and easily.
To this end, the team has deployed a 3D reconstruction application (3D Builder), which allows users to easily scan physical objects and transpose them into the metaverse. The 3D models generated can be used to create digital twins, which can be integrated cross-metaverse and/or integrated into product pages on ecommerce sites to boost physical product sales.
The Paris-based team has also created a platform that interoperates with major metaverse and social networks, is compatible with major e-commerce platforms, accessible, secure and compliant.
METAV.RS has already signed strategic key accounts, from the luxury industry to retail. The startup also works with creative agencies and consulting firms that aim to centralise and manage at scale the experiences of the brands they work with, including the launch of NFT collections and the creation of immersive experiences.
Clément Foucher added: “Some of our clients have very ambitious plans to transform their existing business models. We work with them to co-construct 3-5 year roadmaps, broken down into different blocks and activations. We are thereby able to provide deliverables in only a few weeks.”
Asia is seen as a core market area – expected to account for 60% of the luxury market by 2025. Therefore, METAV.RS plan to ramp up a strong presence there. They’ve already opened offices in Hong Kong and Seoul, offering support to key accounts in these markets.
