Shara Senderoff and Aaron McDonald, co-founders of the AI and virtual universe company Futureverse, have introduced a new venture fund and studio named "Born Ready" with a capital of $50 million. The fund's focus is on investing in emerging technology ventures that hold potential for collaboration with Futureverse or the Metaverse blockchain, specifically The Root Network. This announcement was made on August 3. Born Ready has already invested in several companies including FCTRY Lab, Power'd Digital, Polemos, and Walker Labs.
Shara Senderoff, a previous founder of the blockchain venture fund Raising in Space, which has supported over 20 crypto startups, brings her expertise to this new endeavor. Aaron McDonald, co-founder and managing director of NetX Fund, which has invested in more than 60 portfolio companies, is also part of the leadership team. The company has plans to launch an accelerator program in the near future to further support emerging technology ventures.
Previously, Futureverse raised $54 million in a Series A funding round led by 10T Holdings and featuring funding from Ripple Labs. This initiative aims to unite 11 Metaverse companies into a single ecosystem. These funds will be primarily allocated to the development of Future verse Platform The Root Network, a dedicated blockchain for creating decentralized applications within the metaverse. Interestingly, on the same day of this announcement, reports indicated that Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, and its subsidiary Reality Labs incurred losses of more than $40 billion during the second quarter of 2023. Despite these financial challenges, Zuckerberg remains optimistic about the future of technology, believing that "everything will be smart glasses" and digital interactions will be more immersive, resembling virtual reality.
On a broader scale, the funding landscape in the Web3 and cryptocurrency sector saw a decline of 79% year-over-year, reaching $779 million across 62 deals in June. Notably, the majority of new investments were directed towards blockchain infrastructure projects, while A relatively small portion, less than $2.5 million, was allocated to non-fungible token (NFT) projects. This trend suggests a reorientation of investor focus within the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.
