Web3 entertainment company Kaleidoco raises $7M seed round

Kaleidoco, a web3 entertainment company that specializes in augmented reality, raised a $7 million seed round that values it at $24 million, its founders tell Axios.

Why it matters: The AR and VR space has been looking for something that would break it out from being just a fad among technophiles.

• Investors include Animoca Brands, GameFi Ventures, Gemini, Jane Street, Adit Ventures, Merit Circle, Nexo, Hex Trust, SuperChain Capital, and The Seelig Group (TSG).

Details: Kaleidoco will use the funds to accelerate growth and add more staff as it continues to build and release products.

• The company debuted its Particle Ink Metaverse during Ted2022 in April and has a live installation in Las Vegas. It also has a demonstration planned during the Annecy Festival on Friday.
• "We're driving revenue through gameplay, through NFTs, through ticket sales and live portals, e-commerce and, potentially, advertising branding situations as well as live events," says founder and co-CEO Jennifer Tuft.
• Tuft adds Kaleidoco also has a tech platform where it's developing its own proprietary technology that uses machine learning. "That will be later on, licensed out to other types of content and other types of verticals like education, retail or health care."

What's next: Kaleidoco hopes it's uniquely positioned to take advantage of Hollywood's growing obsession with the metaverse.

• "We've already been contacted by certain people within the Hollywood realm to say 'Hey, we love what you're doing. We want to somehow see if we can work with you to implement this technology into our own types of content,'" fellow founder and co-CEO Cassandra Rosenthal says.