Genies, culture’s leading avatar technology company, announced on March 14, 2022 that Former Disney chairman Bob Iger is investing and joining the board of the metaverse startup in the executive’s first such move since leaving the entertainment giant at the end of 2021.
The board of directors currently has Bond’s Mary Meeker, NEA’s Rick Yang, Genies CEO and co-founder Akash Nigam, and Genies co-founder Evan Rosenbaum. Iger is also personally investing in the company.
Bob Iger, an industry titan in business and global leadership, will help Genies navigate its mission to empower humans to create avatar ecosystems (avatars, avatar fashion lines, avatar worlds, and avatar experiences) in web3.
The startup owns the majority share of the celebrity avatar market
Genies, popular among celebrities such as Rihanna, Lil Nas X and Jennifer Lopez, said it owns 99 percent of the celebrity avatar market share and includes Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group as clients. It also makes NFTs or non-fungible tokens.
“I’ve always been drawn to the intersection between technology and art, and Genies provides unique and compelling opportunities to harness the power of that combination to enable new forms of creativity, expression and communication,” said Iger, who has spent more than a decade in Disney.
“After spending the last few months getting to know Akash and learning more about Genies, I am very excited about his vision and how it will be fulfilled, and I look forward to working with the entire team,” he added.
The startup is empowering people to create their avatar
Genies are culture’s leading avatar technology company empowering humans to develop their avatar ecosystems. Genies provide tools (Genies Avatar Creator OS) to make their avatars, avatar wearable fashion lines, avatar worlds, and avatar interactive experiences in web3.
Bringing the power of NFTs and crypto to culture, Genies’ avatar ecosystem NFT marketplace “The Warehouse” built with Dapper Labs allows talent, IP, and creators to design and sell their avatar ecosystem creations to the masses.
Genies have raised $100 million to date from investors such as Mary Meeker’s Bond, NEA, Breyer Capital, and more.
“We believe that avatar ecosystems are going to be the mobile apps of web3. An ambitious vision calls for rare mindshare, and I can’t think of a better creative and product thinker than Bob to collaborate within bringing this all to reality,” said Akash Nigam, CEO of Genies.
