The Metaverse content platform BUD recently secured $36.8 million in funding, led by Sequoia Capital India. This follows a previous funding round in February where BUD raised $15 million, marking the company’s second funding round within three months. This new injection of capital elevates BUD’s total funding to over $60 million.
Participating in this round were ClearVue Partners, NetEase, and Northern Light Venture Capital, alongside existing investors such as GGV Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and Source Code Capital. BUD is increasingly recognized as a credible player in the Metaverse industry.
Founded in 2019 by former Snap engineers Risa Feng and Shawn Lin, BUD is a social app designed to enable users, regardless of coding experience, to create personalized 3D gaming experiences, virtual assets, and avatars using a simple drag-and-drop builder.
While BUD has not disclosed its active user numbers, the company reported that since its app launch in November last year, users have created over 15 million sandboxes within the game. Furthermore, virtual assets created by users, such as costumes and accessories for game characters, have been traded over 150 million times on the app’s marketplace.
Currently, BUD has not implemented monetization features within the app and does not charge commissions. The app, which is free to use and ad-free, gained rapid popularity after its launch. It has ranked among the top 10 social apps in nearly 40 countries across North America and Southeast Asia. According to Sensor Tower, a digital and mobile intelligence platform, BUD is the top free social app in Thailand and Vietnam.
Social App Metaverse Will Continue to Grow!
While South Korea’s Zepeto, China’s Zheli, and Roblox enable users without coding experience to create virtual characters and spaces, BUD sets itself apart with plans to introduce an NFT marketplace. This development will allow users to sell their virtual assets as NFTs, with item ownership recorded on the blockchain.
As reported by TechCrunch, the specifics of the blockchain on which BUD’s market is built and the tokens it will utilize remain undisclosed.
Shawn Lin, co-founder of BUD, highlighted the platform’s focus on mainstream Gen Z consumers, stating, “BUD facilitates the creation of 3D content for this demographic. We aim to bring blockchain to mainstream audiences and empower our creators to have ownership over their creations, and indeed, continue enabling them to monetize their work.”
BUD, headquartered in Singapore, operates with a team of 130 people across offices in Shenzhen and the USA.
The message for investors, regardless of how reputable the brands may be, is to conduct thorough research before making investments.
A comprehensive evaluation of the market and the future prospects of the products being invested in can prevent significant losses. The year 2022 witnessed many prominent brands incurring substantial losses for their investors.
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