Futureverse co-founders launch $50M venture fund

Shara Senderoff and Aaron McDonald, co-founders of AI and metaverse company Futurverse, have launched a new $50 million venture fund and studio.

According to the Aug. 3 announcement, the fund is dubbed “Born Ready” and will invest in emerging technology ventures possessing collaboration potential with either Futurverse or metaverse blockchain The Root Network. The co-founders say Born Ready has already invested in firms such as FCTRY Lab, Power’d Digital, Polemos, and Walker Labs.

Senderoff previously founded Raised in Space, a blockchain venture fund that has invested in over 20 crypto startups. Aaron was the co-founder and managing director of NetX Fund, with investments in more than 60 portfolio companies. 

The firm says it plans to roll out an accelerator program in the near future. Futureverse previously raised $54 million in a Series A round led by 10T Holdings, including contributions from Ripple Labs that saw the consolidation of 11 metaverse companies into one ecosystem. Developers said the funds would be used to build the Futureverse Platform The Root Network, a blockchain dedicated to creating metaverse decentralized applications. 

The same day, Cointelegraph reported that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and its metaverse subsidiary Reality Labs surpassed $40 billion in losses as of Q2 2023. Nevertheless, the Meta CEO remains adamant that the future is “all going to be smart glasses,” and our time spent on digital devices will become “more immersive and look something more like VR.”

Meanwhile, Web3 and crypto venture capital funding has fallen 79% year-over-year to $779 million over 62 deals in June. Almost all of the new funding went to blockchain infrastructure projects, compared to less than $2.5 million allocated towards nonfungible tokens projects. 

Grateful beyond words to announce @bornreadyvc today.

When I met @aaronmcdnz, I knew he was one of them. Born ready to do the unimaginable. Couldn’t have a better partner-in-crazy-ideas. So far, they’ve all come to be. This one is special. https://t.co/Spf44FcJ9y

— Shara Senderoff (@SharaSenderoff) August 3, 2023

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