With one billion Indians expected to own a smartphone over the next five years, we see India as a hub for not only gamers, but also makers who will use their devices to construct a “atmanirbhar” metaverse.
Metaverse, sometimes called “the next big thing” in the internet’s growth, has provided a plethora of new possibilities for creators, financiers, programmers, and business owners. The word “metaverse” was formerly reserved for science fiction works like Snow Crash (1992), films like The Matrix (1999), Ready Player One (2018), etc., and forthcoming television shows like “Alter Ego.” However, major corporations throughout the world are already spending substantially in establishing a metaverse.
The term “Metaverse” refers to the merging of digital worlds where physical, augmented, and virtual realities all coexist. Online social games like the battle royale phenomenon Fortnite and user-created online environments like Roblox, Minecraft, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons already include some of the ideals of Metaverse. More clues may be found in the form of video conferencing software and online event hosting services.
The’metaverse’ is more than just a passing fad. Last month, NVIDIA announced ambitious ambitions to grow the NVIDIA Omniverse, the first simulation and collaboration platform that provides the groundwork for the so-called Metaverse, in partnership with Blender and Adobe. In April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an ambitious announcement to transform the firm into a metaverse player. In addition, Microsoft announced plans to create a “corporate metaverse.”
Startups are proliferating in this area, and they bring with them novel approaches to provide users and consumers with interactive, immersive, and collaborative experiences. Therefore, huge possibilities are beginning to emerge even as we speak.
The NFT-backed digital artwork “Everydays — the first 5000 Days” by “Beeple” was purchased by VineshSundaresan and Anand Venkateswaran earlier this year for $69 million. The company Metapurse has decided to showcase it at their online art exhibition The Souk. Beeple, as Mike Winkelmann, is a crypto artist. It seems that NFTs are contributing to the global growth of the metaverse.
When it comes to advancing the metaverse, India plays a pivotal role. The nation is one of the top five global markets in terms of user base, and its position is only expected to strengthen as its 440 million gamers represent 16 percent of the global gamers population of 2.7 billion. With such a large user base, India topped the world in mobile game downloads during the first nine months of 2020.
A few of the Indian companies doing groundbreaking work in the Metaverse will be featured below. There is no specific order to the following list of businesses.
Bolly Heroes
Bolly Heroes is an alternative Bollywood universe developed in tandem with production studios, record labels, brands, celebrities, video game developers, and animation studios. Paperboat Design Studios, Fantico, and Vistas Media Capital are among its investors.
Bollyverse, a platform for collecting rare NFTs, will be released soon by the partners. On September 21, 2021, pre-registration will become available.
A user may write, perform in, and produce their own tales and characters on the platform to release community-driven films, games, programs, and animation. Each NFT holder is rewarded with revenue sharing, incentives, and early access to new goods across the platform’s three core NFTs (Legend BFT, Hero NFT, and Real NFT).
The goal, according to Dhruv Saxena, project head at Bolly Heroes, is to construct a Bollyverse out of these fan-made characters. Early NFT holders, he promised, would reap rewards including participation in creative ventures, lucrative collaborations, and a cut of the profits.
Ultra Rare NFTs, another commodity in the “Bollyverse,” allow customers to create their own own characters. In addition, Bollybabies lets its users make something really original by fusing it with other NFTs.
OneRare
OneRare, situated in New Delhi, is the first play-to-earn food metaverse game in India, and it was released on 0xPolygon. In March of 2021, Gaurav Gupta and Supreet Raju established their business.
With OneRare, you may play to win by staking a claim on the meals you love. To properly unlock the Dish NFTs, the player must follow the recipes and harvest the appropriate ingredients. The fact that each dish may only be made once in the One Dish NFT format is the most intriguing aspect of this. The ‘One Rare Dish’ will be owned by exactly one individual in the whole globe.
LOKA
LOKA is India’s first gamified, multiplayer, virtual Metaverse, and it’s headquartered in New Delhi. It’s built on top of 3D maps of actual towns and regions, and it allows users to have simultaneous, real-time interactions with their favourite third-party applications. Krishnan Sunderarajan created LOKA in July of 2020. Connaught Place in Delhi, Marine Drive in Mumbai, and MG Road in Bengaluru are just few of the cities and landmarks that can be explored in 3D on the site. This is a real-time, simultaneous game.
It’s interesting to note that the game relies entirely on external sources, like as applications and websites, to fuel its experiences. You may go to your favourite pizzeria and have pizza delivered to your real-life address using the Zomato app, or you can visit a theatre and watch the newest movies on Netflix while at the gym using the Cult Fit app.
In addition, the platform contains a secondary layer called “Feel, vibe, and culture,” which includes details like ambient sounds, background noises, NPCs, culture-specific virtual items, etc., to maintain the setting’s atmosphere and authenticity. Metaverse, or the LOKA virtual world, is a place to create and share your own content while also interacting with hundreds of other users and in-game features.
Cope.Studio
Vaibhav Sharma established Cope.Studio in November of 2020. It’s an incubator for early-stage companies that specializes in creating and growing deep-tech solutions on a scalable platform.
From its headquarters in Bengaluru, the firm combines design, product support, and funding to create market-defining businesses based on innovative concepts for the Metaverse. The likes of Vedantu, Together Fund, Urban Vault, The Product Folks, Reality Tools, Dehidden, Arali, and Alter8 Analytics are among the firms and organizations that have collaborated with the firm.
Interality
Interality, founded by Farheen Ahmad in March 2021, is a one-of-a-kind Metaverse platform where creators and fans may interact with one another. The Bengaluru-based service allows content producers to easily record and upload holographic representations of real-world objects using NFT technology.
Tamasha.Live
Tamasha. In July of 2020, Saurabh Gupta and Siddharth Swarnkar, both of whom had previously attended IIT Bombay, established Live. This business is creating a real-money gaming environment, or “metaverse,” that will revolutionize the gaming industry by introducing real-time social interaction.
Tamasha is a Mumbai-based startup backed by prominent investors such as Livespace’s CTO Ramakant Sharma, OYO’s CSO Maninder Gulati, Titan Capital, PointOne Capital, First Cheque, and 9Unicorns Accelerator Fund. According to Crunchbase, it is now in the seed stage and has collected $350K in investment.
Zippy
Locations in both Gurugram and Palo Alto Runners may connect with one another in Zippy, a virtual world. Runners from all over the world may connect with one another and take use of the platform’s on-demand immersive, safe, and pleasurable environment.
Zippy, created by Sunny Makroo in March 2021, is a virtual world where users, using their twins or Avatars, can run through the major marathon cities (Boston, London, Mumbai, Tokyo), as well as scenic environments like jungle trails, beach runs, etc., with friends or alone. The virtual world is synchronized with the real kinematics of runners in the real world, using their fitness wearables or treadmill sensors.
Next Meet
NextMeet, with headquarters in Hyderabad, is a pioneer among Indian avatar-based immersive platforms, allowing users to have meetings and connect with others in a virtual 3D space. The business was founded by PushpakKypuram in October of 2020.
NextMeet was created with the goal of doing away with the feelings of loneliness and UI fatigue that come with working remotely. It has addressed this issue by introducing novel UI/UX elements such as spatial audio and 3D avatars to its varied ecology. The company’s current focus is on the mass market, particularly institutions like businesses and universities as well as emerging markets for online entertainment like online reality programs.
