Mark Cuban and Deadmau5 Raise $5M for Metaverse Startup Oorbit
New metaverse startup Oorbit has closed a $5 million round of seed funding from Shark Tank venture capitalist Mark Cuban, music producer Deadmau5, and HOF Capital. Oorbit is developing a platform for the interactive digital worlds that define the metaverse, and with plans on populating them by partnering with content developers.
Oorbit Metaverse
Details on Oorbit are sparse, but the company pitches itself as a unifying infrastructure for the metaverse. The idea is that experiences built on different platforms will all be accessible, thus widening the potential userbase enormously. Visitors to Oorbit’s digital space will play games, attend events, and engage in commerce, according to the London-based startup. The vaguely defined activities will supposedly draw people to try out Oorbit when it becomes available. The startup came out of stealth in tandem with the funding news but has set the actual launch of its platform for later this year.
“Oorbit is demystifying the major technologies that will play the biggest role in the growth of Web3 and the metaverse; blockchain, cloud streaming, NFTs, fintech and more,” Oorbit CEO Ash Koosha said. “We are combining the best parts of these complex technologies to enable episodic entertainment that is not just incredible but also approachable, for all audiences. This round of funding will support growth and platform expansion.”
Funding Frenzy
Metaverse platforms are mushrooming as Meta, Baidu, Nvidia, and others race to plant a digital flag. There are a lot of investment dollars flowing to startups offering virtual beings to populate the metaverse like Soul Machines, Inworld, and Ready Player Me, which counts Deadmau5 as a user. The same goes for startups with an infrastructure focus like Oorbit. Cuban’s involvement will likely help the startup gain traction. It’s not his first metaverse investment either. He previously contributed to a funding round for Offbeat Media Group, the startup behind VirtualHumans.org and an early name in exploring marketing with virtual beings.
“As the metaverse moves from our imaginations into actual entertainment, experiences and products, Oorbit’s founders have created an innovative platform where developers, publishers and brands can create and more easily deliver their most compelling work,” Cuban said. “Best of all, and core to their plan, Oorbit has put the user at the center of their technology so they enable games and even worlds that will delight all comers, and blaze a path for metaverse growth overall.”
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