Former Disney CEO and chairman Bob Iger is becoming a member of the metaverse.
Iger, who left Disney last year after 16 years, is investing and becoming a member of the board of metaverse startup Genies, the corporate stated on Monday.
The Los-Angeles- based mostly Genies, well-liked amongst A-listers like Rihanna, Lil Nas X and Jennifer Lopez, stated it owns 99% of the celeb avatar market share and contains Common Music Group and Warner Music Group as purchasers, for whom it additionally makes NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.
Genies stated Iger will assist it “navigate its mission to empower people to create their very own avatar ecosystems” in together with avatar vogue strains and different avatar experiences.
“I’ve all the time been drawn to the intersection between expertise and artwork, and Genies supplies distinctive and compelling alternatives to harness the facility of that mixture to allow new types of creativity, expression and communication,” Iger stated.
Iger served as CEO of Disney from 2005 to 2020 and stepped down as chairman final yr. His funding in Genies marks his first public transfer.
Genies stated it has raised $100 million so removed from enterprise capital investor Mary Meeker’s agency Bond and Brayer Capital, amongst others.
“We imagine that avatar ecosystems are going to be the cell apps of web3. An bold imaginative and prescient requires uncommon mindshare and I can’t consider a greater artistic and product thinker than Bob to collaborate with in bringing this all to actuality,” stated Genies co-founder and CEO Akash Nigam stated.
The Genies board at the moment contains Nigam, Genies co-founder Evan Rosenbaum, Mary Meeker, basic associate and founding father of enterprise capital agency Bond, and NEA basic associate and head of shopper Rick Yang
