Bristol-based Condense breaks a leg with $4.5 million to open studio for streaming live events into metaverse
Summary
The round also saw the participation of high-profile angel investors, including a platinum-selling grime artist, former England footballer and sports presenter, Tom Blomfield (Monzo), renowned music manager Grace Ladoja MBE and Ian Hogarth (Song Kick).Founded in 2019, Condense offers end-to-end capture and technology to live stream real-world events like music and sports events into 3D applications. This means true-to-life live performances can be streamed directly into the virtual worlds and games platforms used by billions of people worldwide - without the need for VR headsets.The funding has been utilised by the company to open a metaverse studio in partnership with Watershed Bristols cultural cinema and creative technology venue. The investment will also be used to accelerate commercial relationships with artists, labels, content creators and metaverse platforms.Talking about putting Bristol on the map for metaverse and tech development, Condense CEO and co-founder Nick Fellingham said: The Bristol scene has long been a world-renowned melting pot of different cultures and music and, in the last few years, its become a hub for games development, too. The Video 3.0 infrastructure weve built takes out the technical complexity of streaming live into the metaverse.Ziv Reichert, partner at LocalGlobe said: Hundreds of millions of people are hanging out in immersive 3D platforms like Roblox, Rec Room, Fortnite, Sandbox, Decentraland and VRChat and attending virtual events, socialising and being creative. Condense has built the infrastructure to connect the two now music artists, sports stars and creatives can perform and play live in the metaverse, to the largest stadium audience imaginable.Andrew Gault, founding partner of 7percent ventures added: "When I invested in Oculus nearly 10 years ago, the dream was to deliver experiences that seamlessly merge the digital and the physical.