3D metaverse marketplace MetaMundo aims for 2022 launch with new funding

MetaMundo, a virtual nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace focused on the metaverse, has announced the completion of a seed funding round of $2.7 million.

Led by Animoca Brands, MetaMundo’s debut funding further included Hypersphere Ventures, Digital Currency Group, OP Crypto, Metacartel Ventures, and angel investments from the co-founders of AAVE and Rarible, among others.

Built upon a layer-2 network Polygon, the platform lets designers and creators mint, sell and license their NFT assets for usage in virtual and augmented reality, as well as across an array of metaverse worlds including Decentraland, Cryptovoxels and Somnium Space.

The announcement states that using the Polygon network provides users with reduced gas fees in comparison to the Ethereum network.

One of the reasons we decided to start building on @0xPolygon: pic.twitter.com/dbY96pWhKv

— MetaMundo (@metamundo_NFT) November 9, 2021

According to MetaMundo, the marketplace is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2022, and will host a vast library of items including avatars, wearables, vehicles, and buildings, among others. 

MetaMundo co-founder Mark Studholme explained the technology behind the project:

“MetaMundo has a suite of tools that converts, decimates and optimizes the original 3D 'parent' file provided by the creator to individual 'child' files optimized for each metaverse. We mint the parent file as one NFT using the ERC 721 contract, and this parent NFT is a wrapper for the child files and NFTs. So, when you collect the parent NFT, all the child NFTs come with it.”

Studholme added that, when the platform integrates more metaverses, they will “convert and optimize new child files and add these to the parent NFT.”

Related: The Metaverse is a $1T opportunity after users increase 10x: Grayscale report

A research report published in late-November by industry-titan Grayscale predicted that the metaverse sector could soar to $1 trillion in value over the coming years as mainstream audiences become actively engaged and immersed in these burgeoning virtual worlds.

Popular metaverse tokens Decentraland (MANA) and The Sandbox (SAND) have witnessed new all-time highs in recent weeks, a trend partially instigated by global news of Facebook’s pivot into a metaverse company Meta.

Yat Siu, executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, commented on the necessity for interoperability across different metaverse spaces:

“Interoperability is an essential feature of the open metaverse. MetaMundo is creating a network of 3D creators and tools that make it possible to build the multiple emerging open metaverse environments that we envision as the future of digital experience.”