Mytaverse brings businesses into the metaverse by building immersive digital environments

By Riley Kaminer

We’re still in the early days of applying metaverse technologies to the business world. And one Miami company is at the forefront, building a platform for businesses to come together virtually.

Mytaverse – a portmanteau of “my” and “metaverse,” and pronounced accordingly – is a cloud-based platform for 3D immersive multiplayer work environments. Importantly, the platform is hardware agnostic, meaning users can fire it up on any device they already have, including their computer or mobile phone.

The potential applications are only limited by your imagination. Clients have used Mytaverse’s platform for everything from private jet showrooms and exhibition halls to simulated sales environments and conference rooms.

It all started in early 2020, when Venezuelan-American businessman Kenneth Landau made an investment into a virtual reality business founded by Jaime Lopez, which originally focused on experiences for musicians such as Tiesto. (If you’ve partied at Ultra before, chances are you’ve experienced Lopez’s work.)

Then came the pandemic. “We had options,” now CEO Landau told Refresh Miami: wind it down or pivot. Never shy of a challenge, Landau doubled down – and Lopez brought on his wife, customer service expert Juliana, as a co-founder.

Mytaverse CEO Kenneth Landau

“We realized that the world was going to need a very different way to interact – especially corporations,” Landau said. Their solution? A digital platform that creates virtual environments that feel genuine, not gimmicky. 

A comment from the Chief Marketing Officer of client Tekni-Plex encapsulates the Mytaverse experience quite well. “He told me that he was happy with a three-day event that we ran because he was able to see and meet people that he had not seen in two years,” recalled Landau.

In Landau’s estimation, this statement was remarkable because this executive had ‘seen’ these employees via tools like Zoom and Google Meet over those two years. But for him, the Mytaverse experience was something different. “That gives you an idea of how exciting this technology is becoming for companies that are able to bring people together when they can not be together in person,” Landau asserted.

Other clients of Mytaverse include Pepsi, aviation companies Dassault and Asian Sky Group, and architect Zaha Hadid. 

For Pepsi, Mytaverse developed a virtual store to train salespeople and assess their skills. This training takes 30 minutes compared to the six hours usually budgeted for the in-person equivalent. Running this virtually also means that managers do not have to go visit each store to directly supervise staff. Additionally, then the training sessions can finish with 100 people in a large (virtual) auditorium, where they can share their experiences.

Mytaverse has currently raised $10.3 million, including a $7.6 million seed round led by Blumberg Capital, the founder of which is based in Miami. Indeed, Miami has played a significant role in Mytaverse’s broader success, noted Landau. 

“Every single member of our board lives in Miami,” he said. “The contacts we’re making in Miami are fantastic and we’re finding top notch talent – so we’re building here as much as possible.” Landau has lived in Miami for the last 12 years.

Currently, Mytaverse has a dispersed workforce of 37, up from 25 employees four months ago. The team expects to increase to 40 by the end of the year and continue this growth trajectory through 2023.

What is Landau most looking forward to? “I’m excited for people to continue to embrace metaverse technology – and the fact that we can make them feel something exciting in a way that you cannot imagine.” 

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Riley Kaminer