Ikonz, an Indian metaverse startup, has received undisclosed seed funding from Village Global, an early-stage venture capital firm, and Woodstock, a technology investment firm.
The money raised would be used to hire top tech talent and ramp up artistic talent from around the world, as well as drop non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from its IP partners.
Village Global is backed by Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Eric Schmidt of Google, Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, Bob Iger of Disney, Mike Bloomberg of Bloomberg, and Diane Green of VMware, among others.
“It’s heartening to see that a fund backed by the world’s top tech icons, who have a cumulative net worth of over $400 bn and whose companies’ market caps exceed $5.5 tn (Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon), has decided to fund us at an early stage,” Ikonz CEO Abinav Varma Kalidindi said.
Ikonz, founded by Abhinav Varma Kalidindi in August 2021, aims to increase IP aggression by bringing together 50 percent of India’s premium entertainment IPs under one banner within the next 12-18 months.
This means that the startup is pursuing not only actors, athletes, and other celebrities, but also social media celebrities, content producers, and even media companies that specialise in rights ownership.
Ikonz is backed by actor-investor Rana Daggubati and Prasad Vanga, the founder of Anthill Ventures.
Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle are among the iconic IPs that the startup has on boarded. According to its website, “we’ve partnered with Amar Chitra Katha, Suresh Productions, and more to bring all your favourite characters into the metaverse.”
The Amar Chitra Katha library has titles in epics and mythology, history, fables and humour, bravehearts, visionaries, and ACK Junior, and it is available in 20 languages.
