Startup Hadean has secured £28 million in funding to build out its metaverse infrastructure technology.
The London company’s tech already supports virtual worlds in immersive entertainment and enterprise digital twins.
Molten Ventures led the Series A round. It was joined by 2050 Capital, Alumni Ventures, Aster Capital, Entrepreneur First and InQTel. Epic Games invested separately.
“Hadean’s computing power will provide the infrastructure that’s needed as we work to create a scalable metaverse,” said Marc Petit, VP of Epic’s Unreal Engine Ecosystem.
“The company’s technology complements Epic’s Unreal Engine by enabling massive amounts of concurrent users and unlocking new tools for creators and developers. We are pleased to contribute to Hadean’s growth and look forward to continuing to work together to lay the foundation for the metaverse.”
Hadean has signed multi-year agreements in entertainment – for example with Minecraft, Pixelynx, Sony and Gamescoin – as well as with education and enterprise digital twin providers.
Its 14,000-player Unreal Engine demo with EVE Online maker CCP Games at the 2019 Game Developers Conference is just one example of how the company’s infrastructure technology enables large numbers of concurrent participants in a virtual environment.
Craig Beddis, Hadean co-founder and CEO, said: “Hadean’s mission is to bridge physical and virtual worlds – to help us make better decisions and ultimately improve the quality of our lives in the physical world.
“Today’s virtual worlds are a limited experience – small scale, siloed, and insecure. Hence why, these are the technical challenges we’re tackling today. But we believe the true success and mass adoption of the metaverse will rely on the ease by which creators will be able to build their own experiences at scale, leveraging open and robust metaverse-as-a-service technologies.
“We’re delighted to work with industry leaders like Epic Games, who share our ethos and ambition for this reality.”
David Cummings, venture partner at Molten said: “Molten has been a part of Hadean’s journey since early 2019. Since then, we have seen the Hadean team deliver ambitious technical milestones, build an impressive customer base across a number of sectors and continue to attract dynamic talent.
“It is a pleasure to continue providing our support to Hadean as it grows yet further.”