Japan’s virtual live music event platform and metaverse company VARK Inc. raised 1 billion Japanese yen (about 7.2 million USD).
The capital has been raised in the Series C funding round, the proceeds will be used to enhance the product development of the platform.
The investment was made through a new third-party equity allocation to a Chinese video game developer. NetEase Games and SBI Investment, in addition to existing investors, there are JAFCO Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and ANRI.
Based on data from crispy base, VARK has so far raised a total of 2.1 billion yen from its funding rounds. VARK’s series B round raised 600 million yen from a group of investors including Dentsu Corporation.
Tokyo-based VARK was founded in August 2017 as ActEvolve. It started distributing virtual reality live platform VARK in November 2018 and changed its company name to VARK Inc. in May 2020.
The company provides a virtual live music event platform, metaverse templates and a video creation tool for 3D avatars, counting the Irish unit of Meta among its customers, the company reports. . website.
VARK is also the developer behind Blitz Freakan online multiplayer VR game.
VARK says it is driven by a vision of “creating the best virtual services”. The company has developed businesses such as the eponymous brand VARK, which combines a virtual live music event platform and metaverse templates, and VARK SHORTS, a video creation tool for 3D avatars.
VARK SHORTS recently amassed more than 10,000 users within days of its launch, the company said.
Over the past year, the number of virtual live music events hosted on the VARK platform has more than doubled, which suggests that the company has worked to improve its product offerings through previous rounds of funding. there.
In addition, VARK’s metaverse samples have attracted attention and have been used in large-scale events such as the TV Tokyo Virtual Music Festival, held in collaboration with Dentsu Inc. and TV Tokyo Corporation.
VARK said it will use the newly secured funding to strengthen its product development system, enable improvements to existing services, and explore new business opportunities, including opening expand VARK SHORTS using the lean startup approach.
“We need at least ten times this funding and more people to help us spread our culture around the world. We need partners outside of Japan as we continue our international expansion next year and the year after.”
Takuya Kato, VARK
Commenting on the new investment, Takuya Kato, founder of VARK, said: “In Japan, it is often said that raising a billion yen is raising the seed, and we believe that is exactly the case in metaverse domain.”
“We need at least ten times this funding and more people to help us spread our culture around the world. We need partners outside of Japan as we continue our international expansion next year and the year after.”
VARK COO COO Yutaka Sugimoto, added: “I have been with VARK for about two years and I feel that the speed of product releases and updates has increased significantly.”
“In response to the support and expectations of our shareholders, business partners, and service users, we will continue to strengthen our product development system and strive to deliver value at the fastest pace. even faster.”
The investment round comes amid growing demand for companies operating in the virtual and metaverse live music events space.
In Japan, virtual characters like Hatsune Miku and Kizuna AI both have millions of followers on social media.
Adam Arrigo, CEO and co-founder of digital avatar company Wave, in 2019 said there is “over 6,000 DIY virtual influencers in Japan, people who know how to use tools like Unity, VRChat, and the VRM protocol to build their own virtual character, then stream to YouTube and transform into characters in real time.
In March, Katsumi Kuroiwa, CEO of Japanese music entertainment company Avex Inc., speak MBW that businesses can deliver real-world and metadata-connected user experiences that have an edge in the current environment.
“For example, virtual concerts, virtual artists, live experiences incorporating 3D technology, etc. We plan to monitor these movements internationally,” said Kuroiwa.
Global Music Business
