Funding will go towards developing the open metaverse and international business expansion
TOKYO--Virtual reality (VR) startup and organizers of the world’s largest VR event, HIKKY Co., Ltd. announced today that they have raised 6.5 billion yen ($57 million) in an initial stage of their Series A funding round. They are considering additional funding in this round and plan to maintain autonomy following it.
Capital raised will help expand HIKKY’s virtual reality services both domestically and abroad, as well as strengthen their organizational foundation. HIKKY’s services include the Vket series of VR events, the browser-based VR engine called Vket Cloud that runs on smartphones and computers, and open metaverse development with Vket Cloud.
HIKKY advocates for an open metaverse where users can:
- Interact with each other beyond platform boundaries
- Communicate and explore in an open world format
- Deploy original content on their own domains
- Access VR easily from any device, no app needed
“Here at HIKKY, we will accelerate our metaverse business with the help of communication infrastructure and global networks of NTT DOCOMO, INC. and NTT Group,” said Yasushi Funakoshi, HIKKY’s CEO. “We will continue to provide NTT DOCOMO with XR services, technologies, and content as per our strengths. We are extremely grateful to all the creators who have supported us, and to the visitors and companies who have taken part in Vket events.”
HIKKY develops its own proprietary VR engine called Vket Cloud, which is used to create metaverse content that users can access by clicking a URL and doesn’t require a dedicated computer or mobile application. It also supports multiplayer mode, where users can enjoy communicating in the same space using voice or text chat.
The startup also runs the VR largest event series, called Vket. Thousands of artists, many international corporate sponsors, and over a million users attend these events. Vket has become a major player in the VR event space and has received several awards: the VR Awards’ Marketing Grand Prize in 2020, Japan’s XR Creative Awards’ Overall Grand Prize in 2020, and two Guinness World Records in 2021.
