Equity newsletter: A whole new (meta)world

• A Whole New World

It’s been four months since Zuckerberg’s bizarre video announcement about Meta (Facebook to most) and the future of the company. Microsoft has just bought Activision Blizzard for $70bn to focus on the Metaverse projects. 

The Metaverse is a hot topic but what form it takes is up for grabs. Popular sci-fi novels like Ready Player One, now a successful motion picture, and Neal Stepenson’s cult classic, Snow Crash, which coined the term Metaverse, have given people a glimpse into what is possible, the pros and the cons. The books take a different view on who controls the Metaverse and the question still remains. 

It’s likely big tech will have a say, or at least try to, in the makeup of the Metaverse but investors are making their bets on the startups creating the tools, content and hardware for the Metaverse. As Mark Twain said, ‘When everybody is digging for gold, it’s good to be in the pick and shovel business.’

Here are our top picks of the companies helping to make the Metaverse possible. 

Geopets – you may think the Metaverse will make people less active in the real world, well Geopets move-to-earn approach rewards users who have been most active that day. Your virtual spirit animal evolves the more you get out and about in this NFT game. ($8.3m from Pantera Capital and Konvoy Ventures)

Ready Player Me – this Estonian startup creates personalised avatars which can be used across different platforms and games. Ready Player Me hope to be a major player in this space – ($13m from several investors including Konvoy Ventures)

Anything.World – Avatars won’t be the only thing users can create in the Metaverse. Users may want to create their own unique worlds for their avatars to roam. The London based startup will give you the tools to build the infrastructure or your imagination. (Bootstrapped) 

There are so many layers to the Metaverse and the depth of resources and creativity is too large for any one company. This is why there will be many more startups entering the market and with that will come more venture investment. Ready player one?

• Female Founders getting a bigger piece of the pie (Or a slightly bigger sliver? …)

Given Swoop is co-founded by our female founder Andrea, this is a topic we’re always keeping an eye on. Back in October we looked at the lack of European funding going to female founders (here) and why this may or may not be happening. One of the conclusions was that the gender gap at higher levels in the VC world has a domino effect on the investments ultimately made into a similar demographic of founders.