Tokyo-based virtual reality (VR) startup HIKKY Co has raised $57 million USD (6.5 billion yen) in a round of series A funding to strengthen the company’s corporate structure and deploy its Metaverse products, both domestically and abroad, the company announced in a statement on Tuesday.
HIKKY’s VR services are based on its ‘Vket’ umbrella of solutions, including VR Live Events, browser-based multi-peer immersive experiences, and upcoming cloud-based Metaverse platform.
The firm plans to create an open, cross-platform VR Metaverse experience where users can communicate, interact with and design custom content, and other features to provide ease-of-access to the Metaverse platform as well as cloud-technologies accessible to users with a simple web link.
【プレスリリース】
世界最大のVRイベント「バーチャルマーケット」を主催する株式会社HIKKYは、株式会社NTTドコモを引受先とした第三者割当増資により、シリーズAラウンドの1stクローズにて65億円を調達したことを発表いたします。
▼プレスリリースhttps://t.co/DyGV8kg79q#Vket pic.twitter.com/Aq1U0bG9jM
— VR法人HIKKY (@HIKKY_Official) November 15, 2021
HIKKY has partnered with the NTT Group, who are supporting global startups, to work jointly on using NTT’s communication infrastructure and global networks to build and deploy HIKKY’s Metaverse.
In a press release, Yasushi Funakoshi, HIKKY Chief Executive, said the firm would “continue to provide NTT DOCOMO with XR services, technologies, and content as per our strengths.”
The CEO added HIKKY was “extremely grateful” to content creators backing the initiative, as well as visitors and firms attending its Vket events, which have grown significantly to unite “over a million users,” along with representatives from global firms.
HIKKY’s VR events have earned numerous awards such as the 2020 VR Awards’ Marketing Grand Prize, Japan’s 2020 XR Creative Awards’ Overall Grand Prize, and two Guinness World Records in 2021.
A Trending Metaverse
The news comes after US tech giant Facebook rebranded to Meta to reflect the firm’s new vision for developing Metaverse platforms and extended reality (XR) technologies, and later pledged to develop an ethical Metaverse by working with academics, lawmakers, and international regulators.
Meta is creating a Metaverse for remote work and leisure communications, but companies like Varjo are also building enterprise-grade Metaverse solutions to facilitate remote collaboration between teams.
Governments have also joined massive efforts to build the Metaverse, namely after officials in Seoul, South Korea pledged $33.1 million USD to create ‘Metaverse Seoul,’ a huge digital transformation project allowing public service employees to communicate with the public in the Metaverse by 2026.
Barbados also announced on Wednesday a major push to become the world’s first country to open a Metaverse embassy, which plans to step up efforts to expand into Metaverse real estate and increase the availability of embassy products globally.
