65m bond dapper labs flowtakahashiventurebeat to expand its avatar creator, which it markets for virtual identities and wearable digital goods. Genies aspires to become the digital identity that individuals use to express themselves. It began with celebrities capturing moments for events like album premieres, song drops, and guest appearances, and its use increased as the epidemic progressed. This has allowed superstars to make an income even when they are unable to travel. In its beta version, Geneia is now spreading this to a larger range of consumers.
Bond led the round, with NEA, Breyer Capital, Tull Investment Group, NetEase, Dapper Labs, and Coinbase Ventures also participating. Bond was founded in 2018 by Mary Meeker and other former Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund executives, and it has now raised over $3.25 billion over two funds. The funds will be used to invest in the Genie avatar system’s underlying technology and to expand the digital products marketplace on Dapper Lab’s Flow platform. This will make it compatible with nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, which allow users to create digital things with unique identifiers by utilising blockchain, the secure and transparent digital record that underpins cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. “We’re going to give tools so that a sixth- to sixteen-year-old in high school can develop their own digital wearable and commodities collection, then release it on the market and sell it to the people,” Genies CEO Akash Nigam said in an interview with GamesBeat.What excites me the most is that we can allow anyone to sell digital products and wearables.
The NFT trend
Nigam stated, “It’s fantastic for the entire genre.” “Genies will soon be the driving force behind the whole business.” In addition, we formed a partnership with Warner Music Group. “We’ve become the exclusive distributor of avatars and digital events for all of their artists under that umbrella.” NFTs have always been a part of the Genies concept, although Nigam did not anticipate their widespread use for some time. Now that they are close to achieving their goal, the corporation has begun to implement their NFT approach with art drops for superstars such as Mendes. “The wonderful thing about Genies is that it is not an NFT firm.” “We are not a cryptocurrency firm,” Nigam added. “It’s as if we’ve been discussing the theories and concepts of NFTs for years, but we’ve been comparing them to digital commodities, such as skins in video games. And we have discussed infinite capacity, exclusive capacity, etc. We never used the abbreviation NFT until we began to comprehend the events of the previous year. “We’ve always prioritised the customer outside of the NFTs, and this is what we’ve been doing all along.”
upcoming alliances
Later this year, Genies intends to roll out hundreds of agreements that will enable customers to use their Genie to create a “virtual portable identity” that they will be able to carry throughout the internet. It recently teamed with Giphy, which has more than 700 million users that use the search engine every day to locate animated GIFs, or the goofy moving pictures associated with internet memes and saved in graphics interchange format (GIF). In order to submit a Genie avatar to Giphy, users must first create a Genie in the Genies app and then use the deep link to connect it to Giphy. Once within the Giphy app, users are able to submit their Genies to their channel and use them throughout the platform. Previously, Genies were used solely by celebrities, tastemakers, and influencers as a method to record digital memories. Thousands of celebrities use the company’s Genies for album launches, song promotions, and other purposes. Shawn Mendes, J.Lo, Offset, Rihanna, DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Cardi B, and J. Balvin are among the celebrities that use genies. Now, users can create personalised avatars and purchase digital goods in a brand and celebrity marketplace before integrating them with Giphy on Instagram, Facebook, and other sites. In the Genies marketplace, users may manufacture their own limited-edition digital items as “drops.” The customer experience comprises the creation of a digital representation of oneself using options like a haircut, body type, clothes, fantasy accessories, and an ever-expanding list of items that may be imagined. Nigam thinks that avatars created by genies will make the metaverse conceivable, but not as a single virtual environment. In a distributed metaverse, users are able to use their avatars to travel from location to location. According to him, the relationship with Giphy will assist people in using Genies as cultural accessories for their digital identities and integrating them into digital groups to which they already belong.
Bond’s Mary Meeker
Meeker and other former leaders of the Silicon Valley venture capital company Kleiner Perkins founded Bond a few years ago. Meeker will now join the board of directors for the Genies. Nigam stated, “We are thrilled that Mary Meeker is joining the board of directors.” The arrangement was sealed by Mary Meeker’s appointment to the board. This is an additional metaverse wager by a major investor. “The investment is based on the current state of business and the promise of the metaverse,” Nigam explained. Considering how these alliances and momentum are reaching a climax, the potential is substantial.
A digital marketplace
The company, according to Nigam, is predicated on celebrities driving the digital likeness marketplace and selling products to their admirers, who may express themselves with their own Genie avatars.
“When this entire flywheel is assembled, it becomes the new identity layer for the Internet,” Nigam explained. When our marketplace with Dapper Labs goes up this summer, we’ll be able to unleash everyone in bulk in our own marketplace because we’re currently hoarding all of our talent and their Genies. Later in 2021, Genies will offer a secondary market for digital products, enabling users to buy, sell, and exchange digital wearables through a partnership with Dapper Labs’ Flow, a blockchain for open worlds. Nigam views Gene’s avatar as a virtual persona that internet users can take with them wherever they go. Shoes, a jacket, a fashion-inspired hot polka dot collection, a spirit animal creature head collection, a Bitcoin-inspired spacesuit, and a fanciful warrior costume for Pride month are examples of digital products. The majority of goods are constructed without regard to the constraints of the actual world and are intended to be imaginative representations of various personalities.Camilla Cabello, Polychain, Amplo, Foundation Capital, Redsea Ventures, Hashkey, Shrug, A Capital, Tamarack Ventures, and Gaingels are among the new and current investors in this round. Nigam founded the firm in 2017, and it now employs sixty people. The firm is hiring, and it intends to make both executive and engineering recruits. 65m bond dapper labs flowtakahashiventurebeat
