Fwd: Startups building the metaverse

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From: AngelList Weekly <newsletters@marketing.angel.co>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2021 at 2:22
Subject: Startups building the metaverse
To: <lakinkfirkfir@gmail.com>

Up-and-coming startups that are augmenting reality

View Online Looking for your next opportunity? Check out our thousands of job postings from startups all over the world. Salary and equity is shared upfront. Up-and-coming startups that are augmenting reality Photo by Genies Big Tech is so meta these days.   Facebook reportedly plans to rebrand as a metaverse company (its CEO envisions an "embodied Internet"), while Niantic, TikTok, and Apple vacuum up VR startups to create their own mixes of physical and virtual worlds. Even Microsoft is getting into the mix.   This is all a bit spooky, considering the term "metaverse" was first used to describe a virtual world owned by corporations in Stephenson's 1992 dystopian sci-fi novel Snow Crash.   Here are some of the not-so-giant startups helping to build the metaverse.   Engines   These startups develop tools to create 3D worlds of the future: Varjo (they're hiring), a later-stage startup with offices in Helsinki and Virginia, raised nearly $100M since 2017 to develop VR with "human eye resolution"; Threekit (they're hiring), a product visualization startup with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, and Ottawa, raised over $30M since 2019 to help retailers create shoppable, interactive 3D, photorealistic images;  Tetavi, a L.A.-based volumetric technology platform, recently raised $20M to help companies create AR footage; Polystream, an England-based 3D gaming startup, raised $12M since 2018 to help developers tackle problems like "concurrency;" Aireal, a Dallas-based geospatial augmented platform, is helping real estate companies bring their properties into VR environments with "markerless" technology. Meta-creators    Others are working to create those online worlds and the people you'll meet there: StatusPro, a Miami-based sports tech developer, recently raised $5M to create a suite of training and gaming products blending player data, AR, and VR; BuzzCast (they're hiring), an L.A.-based virtual events platform, recently raised $4M to gamify events;  Genies (they're hiring), an L.A.-based startup, raised over $80M since 2013 to create "the next human race" of avatars; Singularity 6, a L.A.-based gaming startup, raised nearly $20M since 2018 to recreate the MMO and pioneer "alternate worlds"; Wolf3D, with offices in L.A. and Estonia, raised nearly $3M since 2015 to create virtual humans for virtual worlds; and UneeQ, with offices in Australia and Texas, is creating AI-powered "digital humans" that can act as customer service agents;   After coining the term, author Stephenson set his sights beyond the metaverse—to the actual universe. He was the first employee of Jeff Bezos's space exploration startup Blue Origin.   Which is, like, so meta. View Story Hot startups hiring now 🔥 Included Health - Our mission is to raise the standard of healthcare for everyone. Explore 138 jobs. DICE - is on a mission to get people out more. Explore 53 jobs. Preset - The fastest, most comprehensive open-source analytics application today. Explore 10 jobs. Helbiz - Shared mobility of tomorrow. Explore 57 jobs. Funding and acquisitions Ando, a San Diego, Calif.-based sustainable banking service launched this year, raised a $6M seed round led by TTV Capital to fund solar initiatives and other carbon-reducing projects using customer deposits. Tel Aviv, Israel-based SaaS startup Cyabra raised a $5.6M Series A led by OurCrowd to develop disinformation detection tools. Its software measures authenticity and impact within an online conversation and detects false information. HiveWatch, an L.A.-based startup, raised a $20M Series A led by former Twitter executives Dick Costolo and Adam Bain to help businesses modernize their physical security using sensor fusion (the collection of data from multiple sensors) and machine learning. XanPool, a Hong Kong-based defi payment network with 500k global users, raised a $27M Series A led by Valar Ventures. The company's software enables people to create non-custodial crypto-to-crypto networks of liquidity providers.