Ripple investment into $53m funding round by AI tech company Futureverse
There’s a lot of clamoring going on about whether the metaverse is dead, dying, or in some other low activity state. According to a new report by Fortune magazine, Meta’s VP of Metaverse stated.. ‘the hype cycle for the metaverse is dead, but that’s okay. The metaverse team can “put their heads down and build” the experiences’, said Vishal Shah.
Facebook’s major directional change and rebranding toward the metaverse has brought on myriad criticism and cost the company billions of dollars. Despite challenges, the persistence of the metaverse concept is evident, and it shows no signs of fading away. However, enthusiasts should exercise patience as the development of the metaverse is anticipated to span approximately a decade, as per Forrester’s projections.
The funding round was led by 10T Holdings, an equity fund specializing in late-stage investments.
Crypto payment solutions provider Ripple also participated in the funding round, further endorsing the company’s vision.
Scaling AI and metaverse technology
Futureverse is aimed to drive initiatives to expand AI and metaverse technologies on a grand scale. It aspires to transform the metaverse from a concept into a practical, accessible, and interactive destination for users.
The company envisions becoming the world’s leading provider of metaverse AI technology, acting as a layer-1 architect and a creative studio.
Futureverse has already integrated 11 startups into its ecosystem as part of this goal, creating one of the largest collaborative networks in the metaverse domain. Some key companies incorporated into Futureverse’s ecosystem include Altered State Machine, an AI-protocol company; Non-Fungible Labs, a creative studio; Sylo, a decentralized communications protocol; and Centrapay, a digital asset payments SDK.
Recent partnerships have reinforced Futureverse’s standing in the metaverse community. The company has partnered with FIFA to introduce “AI League,” an AI-powered consumer game that blends AI gaming with digital collectibles. Additionally, Futureverse has an exciting collaboration with Muhammad Ali Enterprises, set to release “Muhammad Ali – The Next Legends,” an AI-powered boxing game.
Futureverse also intends to leverage the power of blockchain technology by integrating its platform, The Root Network, with Ripple’s XRPL (XRP Ledger).
The Root Network, which is Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible, offers a suite of protocols and blockchain capabilities, empowering developers to create advanced metaverse applications and games. The XRPL integration enables XRP to function as a gas token and implements the XLS-20 NFT standard.
Despite skepticism and diminishing hype surrounding the metaverse concept, Futureverse remains determined to realize its vision. Some industry insiders have speculated that the metaverse idea is losing momentum, especially after social media giant Meta scaled back its metaverse plans.
However, Ripple Labs President Monica Long expresses strong confidence in Futureverse’s mission.
“While we are still in the early stages of exploring what the metaverse can achieve, we at Ripple are excited to contribute to the foundational infrastructure and provide real-world utility to end-users in this open metaverse.”
Monica Long, president of Ripple.
