Metahood Raises $3M to Build the Zillow of the Metaverse
Summary
The startup announced today that it raised $3 million in a seed round led by crypto VC firm 1confirmation, with participation from Volt Capital, Flamingo DAO, and Neon DAO.The startup also secured funding from notable angel investors in the space, including The Sandbox co-founder S\xe9bastien Borget, SuperRare co-founder John Crain, Sorare Growth Lead Brian OHagan, and VC and blogger/podcast host Packy McCormick.Metahoods platform is designed to deliver more context for metaverse land buyers than a general-purpose NFT marketplace. Decentraland is bland and sparsely populated, The Sandbox has only launched limited beta test experiences, Otherside appears to be far from release, and Metas Horizon Worlds is a far cry from its eventual, robust metaverse vision.Would-be metaverse inhabitants may not need to weigh real-world considerations like school quality or walkability scores, but if youre going to spend real money on digital property as an investment, or with plans to build out an experience, then youll want to know where youre buying into. Thats a void Metahood aims to fill, one a broader marketplace like OpenSea doesnt.Metahood supports early and in-development metaverse game worlds like Decentraland, The Sandbox, the Bored Ape Yacht Clubs Otherside, and Somnium Space. These plots can typically be used to create and deploy digital properties and experiences, such as interactive games, and can even be rented out or monetized in other ways.Hype around the metaverse soared in late 2021 when Facebook rebranded itself to Meta and unveiled its own vision for an immersive evolution of the internet. He sees value in an approachable marketplace that lets prospective land buyers get a sense of a virtual neighborhood as its taking shape.Nick Tomaino, founder and general partner at 1confirmation, told Decrypt that his firm loves to support good founders building in categories after the initial hype period, and added that thats what Metahood is.Tomaino pointed to the notion of the metaverse being overhyped as a sign that the trend is real, even if some of the people jumping in werent there for the long haul.Metaverse hype is down a lot, no doubt, but the trend isnt going anywhere, he said.