Actor Rana Daggubati Ventures Into Metaverse With His Startup Ikonz
- ByStartupStory | April 9, 2022
For the last few months, the new buzzword that has been going around is Metaverse. Already jumping on the bandwagon, we have seen international celebrities including Snoop Dogg, and Paris Hilton. Now, with startup Ikonz Telugu actor Rana Daggubati is venturing into the space; in the startup the actor is an investor.
An Indian-American entrepreneur Abhinav Varma Kalidindi founded Ikonz. According to media reports, in order to bring entertainment IPs, brands, and tales to the metaverse, the startul is collaborating with several popular brands such as Amar Chitra Katha, Tinkle. Moreover, Daggubati’s IP rights will also be held by the startup.
Last month, along with participation from Polygon Studios, the NFT and gaming vertical of Polygon, Ikonz raised seed funding in a round co-led by Village Global and Woodstock. Village Global is backed by renowned names in the tech world such as Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Reid Hoffman.
At the time of fundraising, Abinav Varma Kalidindi, CEO of Ikonz, told that to ramp up artistic talent from across the globe and hire tech talent to build its metaverse, the startup will use the funds. In order to drop NFTs from its IP partners, the fresh capital will also be used, Kalidindi added.
The wealth-building platform, Ikonz, aims to help artists, IP owners, and other established icons to manage their digital assets. To understand the complex blockchain technology and help them monetise and upscale, it wants to position itself as a platform that helps IP owners.
Indian celebrities has been quickly swept off by the metaverse and NFT craze. Last year, Amitabh Bachhan, Salim-Suleman, Salman Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Smriti Mandhana joined the NFT metaverse. On the Indian metaverse platform PartyNite, Daler Mehndi has recently bought virtual real estate.
Web3 startups in India have also started catching investors’ attention, with more brands and celebrities coming on board.
In March, Mumbai-based metaverse startup Plutoverse officially closed its angel investment round and is now backed by Jaynti Kanani, one of India’s first crypto billionaires. In a funding round led by Web3.0 venture funds, in February, another metaverse startup Bullieverse also raised $4 Mn.
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