Overview

HIKKY Co., Ltd., a provider of development solutions for VR services including the world's largest VR event "Virtual Market," announced today that it has raised 6.5 billion yen in the first close of its Series A financing led by Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo Co., Ltd.

The funds raised will be used to: 1. Strengthen the development system for VR-related services, including Vket Cloud (a VR content development engine developed by HIKKY that runs on smartphones and PC browsers), 2. Develop and operate an open metaverse using this engine, and 3. To expand the virtual market and VR service business, including Vket Cloud, both in Japan and overseas. The second round of funding is currently under consideration.

The open metaverse proposed by HIKKY

HIKKY's service will realize the following:

• An environment where people can come and go across platform boundaries
• Having experiences and communication with a large number of people in an open world
• Original content development on your own domain
• Easy access independent of devices and without the need for specialized apps

In the future, HIKKY will develop and deploy the "Open Metaverse" using its own engine, Vket Cloud, with the help of many creators and partner companies connected through the virtual market business. In the open metaverse, HIKKY will provide various services to make it a new economic sphere where creativity and communication with all kinds of people are recognized as new values.

Realizing the "Open Metaverse" with "Vket Cloud"

HIKKY has developed its own VR content development engine, "Vket Cloud," and offers it as a service. Vket Cloud enables the development of metaverse content that can be accessed by simply clicking on a URL link from a smartphone or PC without downloading a dedicated application. Multiplayer use is also supported, allowing users to enjoy communication with other users in the same space through voice and text chat.

HIKKY's core business: Virtual Market

In 2020, HIKKY won the top prize in the marketing category at the international VR awards ceremony, the VR AWARDS, and the XR CREATIVE AWARD 2020 in Japan, and in 2021, they achieved two Guinness World Records™* for Virtual Market, attracting global attention in the VR event business field.

* "Largest number of booths at a virtual reality market event" and "Largest number of avatar photos posted on Twitter in an hour" were both recognized as records.

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For more information about HIKKY, please visit their English website here.