Los Angeles-based Tech startup Genies has raised $150 million in a Series C round. The Series C funding round is led by Silver Lake. Now the company is valued at $1 billion becoming a new unicorn in the metaverse space.

BOND, NEA, and Tamarack Global were other participants in the round. This fund will be used for engineer hires and tech development. As per the blog post done by Genies CEO Akash Nigam, this funding will enable the company to keep creating visions like creating an avatar-based metaverse platform for Gen Z.

This fund raise led avatar technology company, Genies to become an unicorn and is the Web3 competitor to games like Roblox where Gen Z users create and dress up virtual avatars, engineer their own expertise and buy other young creators’ virtual goods with real currency. Currently, Genies is testing avatar creator tools for consumers through an invitation-only beta program. NFTs are unique tokens that can be found on platforms like Ethereum or Flow and are used to represent ownership of images or 3D assets.

Users can create avatars of themselves in Web3 virtual environments using this Tech startup Genies provides. A software development kit and an application programming interface offered by the startup company Genies which creators can use to integrate the startup’s technology into their apps. Users without extensive coding knowledge can also use the startup's tools. Users can also design avatar fashion lines, accessories and other virtual creations through Genies’ technology. Genie avatar creators own the rights to their Genie avatar creations and can use them in any way they choose, such as creating a show or movie, starting a new brand, or unlocking new forms of creativity, expression, and monetization. Digital representations of users that appear in video games or on social networking sites are Avatars.

To each user, Genies has promised to provide “full commercialization rights” over the characters they create, dress, and house. In leading NFT integration platforms Genies soon be competing with The Sandbox, Decentraland, and Ready Player Me.

Silver Lake co-CEO Egon Durban is expecting much from the platform and said in a statement “They make it possible for people to build the avatar ecosystems that we believe will drive the next evolution of human expression, communication, and creativity,”

Earlier work of Genies :

Genies last funding round was held in May 2021. In this Genies partnered with UniversalMusic Group and Warner Music Group for creating virtual avatars and digital, wearable NFT items centered on the labels’ artists and served as each company’s “official avatar and digital goods NFT provider.” Recently Genies

Recently in the month of December an invite-only avatar ecosystem NFT marketplace launched by Genies called “The Warehouse” that it created on Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain network enabling creators to buy, sell, and trade these avatar ecosystem creations is. It is a proof-of-stake chain designed to support NFT projects and play-to-earn games. Mass consumer “avatar creator tools” is being introduced by the company Genies to small groups through a private beta which is allowing users at every level of technical ability to create their Web3-native avatars and avatar fashion collections, and eventually, avatar homes and social experiences. 

Indrani bose

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA