Thousands of new startups are founded every year – emerging companies with the potential to disrupt the metaverse industry. To give you a head-start on emerging technologies and startups that will impact the metaverse sector in 2022, we analyzed a total of 316 global metaverse startups & scaleups. Meet 5 of the most promising startups to watch!
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 Metaverse Startups to Watch in 2022
Out of 316, the 5 metaverse startups to watch are chosen through the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering over 2 093 000+ startups & scaleups globally. As the world’s largest resource for data on emerging companies, the SaaS platform enables you to identify relevant startups, emerging technologies & future industry trends quickly & exhaustively.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the 5 metaverse startups you should watch in 2022 as well as the geo-distribution of the other 311 startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. We hand-picked the 5 highlighted metaverse startups based on our data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, the relevance of technology, and funding, among others.
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NextMeet enables Immersive Virtual Collaboration
Founding Year: 2020
Location: Hyderabad, India
Partner for: Virtual World Creation
Industries: EdTech, Industry 4.0
Indian startup NextMeet develops an immersive virtual reality (VR) platform for remote working, collaboration, and distance learning. The platform features 3D avatars that let users interact with each other virtually over the metaverse. This makes situations like work from home (WFH) and online learning more interactive and engaging as compared to video calls. The startup also creates custom 3D worlds for virtual events such as conferences, trade fairs, and product launches.
PolkaWar develops a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Gaming Platform
Founding Year: 2021
Location: Singapore
Partner for: Immersive Gaming
Industry: Gaming
PolkaWar is a Singaporean startup that builds an NFT gaming platform. The platform combines decentralized finance (DeFi) and immersive gaming. The startup’s game features a marketplace where players sell in-game items and weapons for crypto. Players earn PWAR, the startup’s crypto token, by participating in the game, renting their in-game equipment, as well as staking their existing tokens.
PlayersOnly offers a Decentralized Sports Ecosystem
Founding Year: 2020
Location: Los Angeles, US
Partner for: Digital Collectibles
Industries: SportsTech, Entertainment
PlayersOnly is a US-based startup that offers a decentralized sports social media ecosystem. It leverages DeFi to create a marketplace that allows athletes and brands to collaborate to create digital collections and experiences. The startup also offers a social network that connects athletes to each other. DeFi interactions on the marketplace and the social network are facilitated by PlayersOnly (PO) token. In addition to supporting athletes, the startup’s solutions enable fans to invest in their favorite players and teams.
Zash advances Social Investing
Founding Year: 2021
Location: London, UK
Partner for: Crypto Investing
Industry: FinTech
UK-based startup Zash leverages Web3.0 technologies to develop a social investing network for crypto investors. The startup’s social network is creator-led, allowing retail investors to create communities and learn from each other. It offers a set of tools that allows creators to create investing ideas and share them with followers. By leveraging and combining metaverse and the creator economy, the startup’s solution advances retail investing to attract new retail investors, particularly from the younger demographics.
Union creates Realistic 3D Avatars
Founding Year: 2020
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Partner for: Virtual Identity
Industries: Gaming, Travel
Spanish startup Union provides virtual identity solutions for the metaverse. The startup’s technology turns selfies into realistic 3D avatars for use in augmented (AR) and virtual reality games and experiences. These avatars are low-poly and rigged as well as transferable across social networks, both traditional and in the metaverse. For businesses, building metaverse applications, the startup’s solution enables easy and low-cost creation of non-player characters (NPC). This improves user experiences as well as customer engagement in the metaverse.
Discover All Emerging Metaverse Startups
The 316 metaverse startups showcased in this report are only a small sample of all startups we identified through our data-driven startup scouting approach. Download our free Industry Innovation Reports for a broad overview of the industry or get in touch for quick & exhaustive research on the latest technologies and emerging solutions that will impact your company in 2022!
