DNABLOCK, a 3D avatar and animation platform provider for Web3, raises $7 million in its second seed funding round.
DNABLOCK enables creators and storytellers to bring their imaginations to life through REPLIKANT, a collaborative creativity tool for Web3. REPLIKANT allows distributed teams to create bespoke, high-quality, digital 3D avatars, videos, games and even cinema-quality productions in the fraction of the time and cost of traditional animation and visual effect studios.
The new funding round was led by Sfermion, Solana Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Non-Fungible Labs alongwith participation from a diverse group of investors in Web3 including SoftBank Group’s SB Opportunity Fund, LD Capital, Haobo Zhao, CMT Digital, Gaingels, RareBreed, Alumni Ventures, Diverse Angels, Fenwick and West, Figure 8 Investments and Bill Silva. Previous seed round investors include Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Mike Shinoda, and Spacecadet Ventures.
Robby Yung, CEO of Animoca Brands, commented:
“DNABLOCK’s powerful new tool REPLIKANT enables massively collaborative creativity on a global scale and paves the way for democratized and decentralized Web3 entertainment. We strongly believe in the vision of an open metaverse that allows the users themselves to power rich narratives and deep immersion.”
DNABLOCK said that it will use new funds to further scale and deploy REPLIKANT. Additionally, DNABLOCK will establish an LA-based creator studio to launch new NFT talent and add several key leadership roles.
DNABLOCK co-founder and CEO, Anthony Kelani, said:
“We want people to feel something when they see their characters and NFTs come to life through REPLIKANT. The next great franchise isn’t going to come from the top-down, fully formed and with fixed narratives. It’s going to come from the bottom-up with stories that NFT communities write for themselves. I’m particularly excited that this will surface a new generation of stars from a much more diverse roster of creatives than we’ve seen from legacy media.”
REPLIKANT provides completely customizable AAA quality 3D avatars, creator friendly real-time animation tools that require no prior knowledge of 3D programming, and an expanding library of partner templates for music videos, cinematics and interactive experiences.
“When people began writing essays about the Metaverse two years ago, we were already building the tools to make it happen.” said DNABLOCK co-founder and CTO, Luc Shurgers. “It was clear from the start that procedurally generated avatars and animation were the future, so we assembled a team of game engine veterans with several AAA-titles under their belts and got busy. Now we have REPLIKANT, which delivers solutions today, while others play catch-up.”
With this round, Scott Broock, who was previously Global VR Evangelist for YouTube and EVP of Digital Strategy and Innovation at Illumination, joins Kelani and Schurgers, as Chief Strategy Officer. “The world is experiencing a fundamental shift in mediums from legacy film, TV and Web 2.0 to decentralized, community owned IP in Web3, which is backed by blockchain technology,” said Broock. “With REPLIKANT, Luc and Anthony have built an amazing tool that unlocks massively collaborative creativity, and it’s the future of entertainment.”
According to DNABLOCK, everything in REPLIKANT is composable and interoperable, meaning that the code, or DNA of a character can jump from one REPLIKANT powered world to another, enabling a decentralized network of interactive entertainment experiences where NFTs are the stars.
DNABLOCK said that REPLIKANT is production-ready and has been battle tested by some of the world’s top creative teams.
