TRIPP, the company building the mindful metaverse, today announced an $11.2M investment led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Qualcomm, Amazon Alexa Fund, HTC, Niantic and existing investor Mayfield totaling $26.3M to date. The funds will be used to expand its team in building impactful technologies that facilitate wellbeing in the metaverse. TRIPP is also announcing its acquisition of worldbuilding platform Eden from BeardedEye, creators of the popular Galactic Gallery VR experience. The launch of Eden on TRIPP's platform will be a major step towards building safe, community-driven experiences in the mindful metaverse.
The fresh funding comes at a time when access to mental healthcare is in more demand than ever: the pandemic triggered a 25% increase in anxiety and depression worldwide, with resources increasingly strained. TRIPP's digital support tools – designed to help TRIPP users take control of their mental wellbeing through meditative experiences – are available through convenient access points like AR, VR, and mobile.
“With over one billion people globally suffering from depression, anxiety, or stress, we're hopeful that innovations like TRIPP can be a part of the solution,” said Moritz Baier-Lentz, partner at BITKRAFT Ventures. “Beyond a great product that is already a leader in its category, there was a lot to like about what Nanea and the TRIPP team have built. It's rare to find such a combination of authentic founder-market fit, operational excellence, and an exciting vision with many avenues for future growth.”
“TRIPP's innovative platform highlights the unique magic of VR to support people's mindfulness worldwide, and represents an important step towards normalizing the broader discussion around technology's role in mental health,” said Pearly Chen, Vice President at HTC VIVE. “We're proud to be part of their journey as we work together to build out the mindful metaverse and help people everywhere foster a deeper connection with themselves.”
TRIPP's acquisition of Eden's cross-service world-building technology marks a major milestone in pioneering the mindful metaverse as a safe space for users to connect and support each other's emotional and mental wellbeing. The acquisition will enable users to further customize their TRIPP experience, explore artworks and soundscapes while connecting with users from across the globe.
”We're grateful that more and more investors are recognizing the need for innovative wellness tools that expand beyond traditional meditation apps,” said Nanea Reeves, founder and CEO of TRIPP. “Through our acquisition of Eden, we're one step closer to truly building a mindful metaverse and establishing a safe space for transformative experiences in digital realities while also empowering creators to join us in our mission.”
Eden marks TRIPP's third acquisition, and second this year, following the acquisition of the largest VR live meditation community EvolVR in January. This latest funding round includes investment from Qualcomm (Waze, Zoom), Niantic (Pokémon Go), HTC and Amazon Alexa Fund to existing high-profile shareholders like Mayfield (Tonal); with an emphasis on gaming, Web3 and immersive technology visionaries. The announcement comes on the heels of TRIPP's newly revamped mobile app and collaboration with Luminance to develop next generation wellness experiences as NFTs.
For more information visit tripp.com
About TRIPP
TRIPP is the company building the mindful metaverse, pioneering XR technologies that deepen connection to self, facilitate mental well-being, and enable personal and collective transformation.
TRIPP apps are available on the following platforms: Mobile - iOS, Android, VR - HTC VIVE Flow, Meta Quest & Rift, PlayStation VR, AR Smartglasses - JioGlass, Nreal. TRIPP/EvolVR's Live Group Meditations can be accessed in VR and web browsers by searching for the EvolVR communities on AltspaceVR, Engage and Meta Horizons. TRIPP's leadership team is helmed by CEO, Nanea Reeves and includes Chief Business Officer, Mani Srinivasan, CTO Jason Asbahr, SVP of Product, Felipe Lara, Jeremy Nickel as VP of Community & Live Events and Sunny Strasburg, LMFT as Director of Clinical Operations, PsyAssist. Founded in Los Angeles, TRIPP operates with a fully distributed remote team.
About Eden
Eden is cross platform but designed with VR as a priority. The potentials for creative freedom and flow- inducing gaming are exponentially increased in this emerging platform. Using the native social features and fully integrated voice chat, anyone can explore and hang out with friends regardless of what device or platform they are playing on.
About BITKRAFT Ventures
BITKRAFT Ventures is a leading investment platform for gaming and Web3 globally, and has been the most active gaming venture capital firm and lead investor in 2020 and 2021, according to research from InvestGame and Drake Star Partners. Founded by industry pioneer Jens Hilgers, BITKRAFT serves a worldwide network that spans many of the industry's forward-thinking startups and founders—including former executives from the likes of Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Epic Games, Google, and Apple who are working to build and operate the virtual worlds and economies of the future. BITKRAFT operates six venture funds with a total of over $730M in assets under management and has over 90 companies in its global portfolio as of April 2022.
BITKRAFT's experienced international team works closely with exceptional entrepreneurs to create significant value through early candid partnerships, unique domain experience, entrepreneurial history, and a global ecosystem of strategic partners.
Find out more about how BITKRAFT and its portfolio companies are pushing the boundaries of Synthetic Reality® by visiting https://www.bitkraft.vc/vision.
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