Genies raises $150M at over $1B valuation for metaverse avatars
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Metaverse avatar company Genies has raised $150 million at a valuation above $1 billion.
Los Angeles-based Genies makes avatars that people can customize to their own needs, and it also provides celebrities with avatars that can be used as stand-ins for them at online events. The company also sees them as enabling people to jump around from different places in the metaverse while keeping the same identity.
Silver Lake led the round, with participation from Bond, NEA, and Tamarack Global. The company will push its blockchain-based strategy and continue to roll out avatar creator tools that enable anyone to create their own avatars, avatar fashion collections, and avatar homes and experiences.
“We believe avatar ecosystems are going to shape Web3 the same way that mobile apps defined Web2,” said Akash Nigam, CEO of Genies in a statement. “With every advancement of the internet, an expansive new region of entrepreneurial skill sets is born. In Web3, Gen Z avatar ecosystem builders are going to be the leaders of innovation and, through our creator tools, we strive to empower their wildest imaginations, ideas, and experiences as avatar creations.”
Since its last $65 million funding round in May 2021, Genies — which said it has a 99% celebrity avatar market share — partnered with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to serve as each company’s official avatar and digital goods non-fungible token (NFT) provider.
Genies also started to roll out its mass consumer avatar creator tools to small groups via a private [invitation-only] beta, allowing users at every level of technical ability to create their own web
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