Epic Games has participated in a $30 million funding for a metaverse-related project.
Epic Games invests $30 million in the metaverse
Epic Games, Inc. is a company founded in 1991 that has come up with hugely successful games over the years, most notably Fortnite and Unreal, as well as Gears of War, Shadow Complex and the Infinity Blade series.
The biggest success was in 1998 when they published Unreal. The technology and graphics engine used to make this game (Unreal Engine) were later licensed to many other developers, so much so that it was used in the development of a large number of video games.
In 2017, it released the very famous Fortnite, which still represents the company’s largest source of profits.
It is therefore a true video game giant that over time has also acquired many other companies so that it has become a true benchmark in the industry.
To date, it has a turnover of more than $5 billion, and has more than 2,000 employees.
One of the projects it is involved in is called Hadean, and it is the infrastructure of a metaverse.
Epic Games is from the United States, while Hadean was founded in 2015 in London and is building its own technology for a virtual metaverse infrastructure.
Right now Hadean is specifically looking for more computing power needed to expand metaverse-related initiatives, which is why it decided to launch a Series A funding round.
Epic Games took part in this funding, through which $30 million was raised. Groups such as 2050 Capital, Alumni Ventures, Aster Capital, Entrepreneur First, and InQTel also participated. The round was led by European investment firm Molten Ventures.
In addition to Epic Games, the other major backers of the project were 2050 Capital and Alumni Ventures.
Hadean aims to grow thanks to new funding secured
The Series A funding round, along with the investment from Epic Games, will help Hadean develop scalable, interoperable and secure capabilities for their enterprise metaverse.
Hadean is an open platform for distributed cloud computing, such that it can be considered a true infrastructure that powers the metaverse in order for it to become a reality.
The company is a startup backed by venture capital, and aiming to reinvent distributed, spatial and scalable computing for Web 3.0 and the metaverse. To date, it already has partnerships with major brands such as Microsoft, Minecraft, Epic Games, Sony, Gamescoin, Pilxelynx, Francis Crick, CAE, BAE and Thales.
Hadean co-founder and CEO Craig Beddis revealed that their mission is to connect physical worlds with virtual worlds to help make better decisions to improve the quality of life in the physical world.
In particular, he points out that today’s virtual worlds are a limited experience, often small-scale, isolated and insecure. This poses major technical challenges that are what society is facing right now.
The goal is to make it easy for developers to create experiences within the metaverse so they can achieve mass adoption and success. That is why they are working on metaverse-as-a-service (MaaS), so as to make this infrastructure affordable for everyone.
The $30 million raised will be used to accelerate development so that tools that can be used in the new and emerging metaverse market will be available to developers as soon as possible.
Epic’s VP of Unreal Engine Ecosystem, Marc Petit, said:
“Hadean’s computing power will provide the infrastructure that’s needed as we work to create a scalable metaverse. The company’s technology complements Epic’s Unreal Engine by enabling massive amounts of concurrent users and unlocking new tools for creators and developers. We are pleased to contribute to Hadean’s growth and look forward to continuing to work together to lay the foundation for the metaverse.”
Molten Venture Partner David Cummings added:
“Molten has been a part of Hadean’s journey since early 2019. Since then, we have seen the Hadean team deliver ambitious technical milestones, build an impressive customer base across a number of sectors and continue to attract dynamic talent. It is a pleasure to continue providing our support to Hadean as it grows yet further.”
The future of the metaverse
The metaverse is certainly a very interesting development in the video game industry because it enables a truly immersive gaming experience. However, it has potential that extends outside of this specific area as well. So, while it is precisely in the video game sector that it can grow and develop first and most, it can then later also extend out of this world and land in other sectors as well.
We are still in the early days of this technology, so it will take time before it can fully harness its potential and achieve true success, but there are already many initiatives in the field that are trying to get serious about offering gamers in particular something never seen before.
