Everyrealm Completes $60 Million Series A With Support From Nas, Lil Baby, Gene Simmons, and Others

Lil Baby performing live. Photo Credit: Frank Schwichtenberg

Metaverse virtual-land investment startup Everyrealm (formerly Republic Realm) has announced the completion of a $60 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Everyrealm revealed its multimillion-dollar raise – and its new name – on social media today. Regarding the New York City-headquartered company’s updated title, higher-ups posted a brief clip and a tweet declaring: “WE ARE EVERYREALM! New name, same goal. Shaping the #metaverse.”

And the funding round of the metaverse- and NFT-focused company, which arrived on the scene last year, came to light in a message from CEO Janine Yorio. “Proud to announce that we closed on a $60 million Series A financing round led by @a16z,” penned the Newseed founder and CEO Yorio. “This marks one of the largest Series A funding rounds for a company led by a female CEO.”

In addition to the leading contribution from a16z – also a backer of music-investment platform Royal.io, African game publisher Carry1st, and Flow blockchain developer Dapper Labs – Dapper itself, Coinbase Ventures, San Francisco’s Dragonfly Capital, and New York’s GoldenTree Asset Management are among Everyrealm’s institutional investors.

Andreessen Horowitz general partner Arianna Simpson led her firm’s Everyrealm investment and explained the play on social media, writing in part: “The scarcity and ownership rights that can be enforced in digital worlds, and the greatest power of the internet (network effects!) are critical cornerstones of this new sphere. In the metaverse, the coolest ‘places’ will win out just like in the physical world.”

On the artist and celebrity side, rapper Lil Baby, Baby Keem (Kendrick Lamar’s cousin), Anthony Saleh (the manager of Nas and Kendrick Lamar), Nas (a longtime crypto advocate and investment collaborator of a16z), Gunna (another client of Saleh’s Emagen), Paris Hilton, and Gene Simmons likewise participated in Everyrealm’s $60 million raise.

This ample artist support for Everyrealm is worth bearing in mind, for as mentioned, the startup chiefly invests capital in metaverse “land” – which can then dramatically increase the value of nearby “plots.” Of course, the potential for exclusive concerts, digital-item sales, “meet and greets,” and more from big-name artists could increase the price of certain metaverse assets.

Everyrealm’s website explains that the startup currently possesses 25 “metaverse platform portfolio investments,” north of 3,000 non-fungible tokens, over 100 “metaverse real estate developments,” one gaming guild, and a “full-stack NFT and metaverse gaming development studio.”

In another testament to the music industry’s growing interest (financial and otherwise) in the metaverse, Warner Music Group late last month partnered with The Sandbox to create a music-inspired virtual theme park and concert venue. (Sandbox co-founder and COO Borget Sebastien joined Everyrealm’s $60 million round, and investment platform Republic still possesses an interest in the newly renamed entity.)

Meanwhile, Paris-headquartered “immersive music experience startup” Stage11 closed a multimillion-dollar raise – and inked partnerships with Snoop Dogg and David Guetta – in Q4 2021, which also saw Roblox launch a metaverse edition of EDC Las Vegas.