- AvatarOS, a digital avatar startup based by Isaac Bratzel, closed a $7 million seed funding.
- Bratzel beforehand labored for the corporate behind Lil Miquela, a well-liked digital influencer.
- Learn the 11-page pitch deck the startup used whereas elevating enterprise capital.
AvatarOS is betting that AI can supercharge the marketplace for digital influencers.
Based by Isaac Bratzel, the startup is constructing digital avatars for social media, gaming, apps, and different immersive experiences.
AvatarOS introduced this week a $7 million seed funding led by enterprise capital agency M13. Andreessen Horowitz Video games Fund, HF0, Valia Ventures, and Mento VC additionally participated within the spherical. AvatarOS has raised $8 million in complete since its founding in 2022.
This is not Bratzel’s first rodeo working with digital avatars.
Bear in mind Lil Miquela?
Should you do not, she was a pioneering digital influencer and has over 2 million Instagram followers. Bratzel led the creation of her avatar whereas on the digital influencer startup Brud, which was later acquired by NFT startup Dapper Labs in 2021. The Miquela character has been leveraged by manufacturers like Chanel and Prada in advertising campaigns and even has a music profession.
Bratzel mentioned Miquela had one main limitation, nonetheless. Animation is pricey, and a few initiatives with potential manufacturers or companions merely “weren’t doable,” he mentioned.
One instance, which Bratzel outlines in AvatarOS’s investor pitch deck, was Miquela being featured in HBO’s hit present “Euphoria.”
“It simply wasn’t possible due to the technical limitations,” Bratzel mentioned. It might have value about $3,000 per second to animate Miquela, per the pitch deck. With developments in AI, technical limitations for animation are decrease than ever, Bratzel mentioned.
One character already developed by this expertise is a model of Bratzel himself (who additionally makes an look within the pitch deck).
M13’s Latif Peracha, who led the deal, instructed BI that whereas operating due diligence on AvatarOS previous to investing, he spoke with this digital model of Bratzel for an hour, discussing hobbies like operating and basketball.
Whereas digital influencers are one software for AvatarOS, Bratzel mentioned the corporate is broadly fascinated about how any “character-driven content material” may very well be used throughout a number of platforms, pointing to video video games for instance.
“You will have this character, you’ve gotten all these property, however the social media and the advertising for a way you try this could be very disjointed,” he mentioned.
Bratzel mentioned online game firms may use AvatarOS to create avatars of recreation characters with their very own social media accounts and change into digital influencers for the sport model.
The corporate can also be eyeing partnerships with celebrities and sports activities figures.
“It appears like the fitting time the place you may scale the sort of software,” Latif mentioned.
Learn the 11-page pitch deck AvatarOS used whereas elevating its $7 million seed funding spherical.
Word: Some particulars have been redacted, and the deck has been altered in order that it may be shared publicly.
