Early-Stage Founders Building Metaverse wanted for new €25M fund

by Startacus Admin

Industry Veterans Launch Specialist Fund in Europe to Invest in Early-Stage Founders Building the Metaverse.

FOV Ventures, a new specialist VC fund to invest in early-stage founders at the forefront of the Metaverse, has today announced the first close of €16.5m of its target €25m fund. The fund will invest in pre-seed and seed-stage companies across Europe, leveraging the industry expertise of its founding partners and its active ‘Edge Network’, a community of leaders in the field helping to scout new deals and support the fund’s portfolio.

The Metaverse represents a major expansion of today’s Internet, becoming more immersive, built with new tools such as real-time 3D game engines, and spanning an increasingly blurred line between the virtual and physical world. It has emerged as one of the hottest topics in tech over the past year, with the major tech platforms such as Meta, Epic, Nvidia and Microsoft investing heavily in the area, catalyzing huge interest from investors and founders alike.

Launching a smaller fund with a specialised sector focus has become increasingly common in today’s venture landscape and positions FOV Ventures perfectly to find the best Metaverse companies in Europe and add value to both founders and co-investors.

Dave Haynes, Founding Partner of FOV Ventures, commented, “We believe the Metaverse represents a trillion-dollar opportunity over the next decade, fundamentally changing the way we play, socialize and shop, but also the way we work and collaborate. We’ll also need new tools for creators to build this new reality. As with previous evolutions on the Internet, we believe the Metaverse will unleash a new generation of billion-dollar companies. Our mission is to identify, fund and support those companies”

The two Founding Partners Dave Haynes and Petri Rajahalme are industry veterans. Prior to launching FOV Ventures, the team have backed Metaverse companies such as Wave, the Warner Music backed virtual music concert platform; Immersal, the exited Finnish AR-cloud startup; and LIV, the mixed reality streaming platform.

The duo has made several more angel investments together into Metaverse related startups whilst raising the fund, including ReadyPlayerMe, the cross-game avatar platform for the Metaverse and The Dematerialised, a Web3 marketplace for authenticated virtual goods.

The buisness will make initial investments of between €250-500k in up to 25 companies across pre-seed and seed and as a specialist fund are willing to back founders right from the start of their journeys. Categories of current interest for the fund include identity, avatars, commerce, entertainment & social, future of work as well as creator tools & infrastructure.

Petri Rajahalme, Founding Partner of FOV Ventures, said, “Given the recent excitement and huge potential of the Metaverse, we’ve seen an influx of talent and interest. For the past five years, Dave and I have had front-row seats and have built a strong network by being very active in the ecosystem. We believe we add a lot of value to the startups we invest in through our combined expertise as well as our ‘Edge Network’, which gives founders added support, as well as introducing us to new startups.”

The FOV Ventures ‘Edge Network’ is a global community supporting the fund and its portfolio companies, as well as scouting potential investments. Individuals in the network include leaders from the major tech platforms, including Meta, Epic, Google and Snap, as well as technical experts and exited founders. Examples include Matt Miesnieks, founder of spatial mapping startup 6D.ai, a company acquired by Niantic and Jussi Mäkinen, CMO of Finnish mixed reality headset maker Varjo, who brings branding expertise from roles at Rovio and Nokia. The community is still being expanded with more to be announced in the coming months.

 

 

 

 

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Published on: 10th March 2022