A few years ago, for all the metaverse topics, several startups emerged with a special focus on digital avatars. The topic has disappeared, but generative AI has breathed new life into avatars as it is easier to spin up different virtual identities. Companies are experimenting with avatars various use cases, including enterprise space D-ID and Synthesia, Zoom for Meetings, Fashion Glimpse, Praktika for Learning, Tiktok and Creator Space captions.
However, Isaac Bratzel, who created popular virtual influencers like Lil Miquela and Amelia 2.0, believes there is a lack of high-quality avatars that not only look good but have personalized characteristics. And that thought process led him to build Avatalus.
Bratzel previously worked in design roles at Ipsoft (where he created Amelia 2.0), virtual influencer company Brud (where he created Lil Miquela), and Dapper Labs after winning Brud with Dapper Labs. He started Avatalus after leaving Dapper Labs in 2022.
The company said it has closed its $7 million seed funding round led by M13’s Latif Peracha with participation from Andreessen Horowitz Games Fund, HF0, Valia Ventures and Mento VC.
Avatalos is in the exploratory stage to find the right fit for the right product market. Bratzel said he knows that the company doesn’t always want or need what it can do technically or as a cool company.
As for the M13, Peracha said this was an exploratory round and an opportunity to support founders with a robust track record in the avatar space.
“We will see the right business model through this round of exploration and continue to be a little more clear in the future. Isaac’s history at Ipsoft, I think he is clearly the right person to build a business,” he said.
He also added that he did some of the due diligence by talking to Bratzel’s avatars to learn more about the founder.
The founder said that Avatalos is focused on creating high-end avatars in 3D spaces rather than dealing with the world of content you click on.
“One obvious similarity is spam email. If content is easy to create, we want to multiply anywhere and have a saturation of content and distinguish it from it. That’s where we want to be in the avatar field,” Bratzel told TechCrunch over the phone.
“There are existing products with avatar generation technology, but we want to focus on the avatar itself. Looking at Lil Miquela, it is a permanent entity beyond a single project and has been able to generate value over time,” he added.
The company currently has beta users and has access to several existing avatars. The startups are also releasing simple APIs that clients can use to integrate avatars with their sites. Bratzel said these organizations can provide information to these avatars with large language models (LLMS) and change camera angles and views.
Currently, Avataros creates premium and customized avatars for the clients themselves. However, at Line we want to provide clients with more tools for creating and coordinating. Bratzel said the company’s main differentiation is how avatars move their space.
“The main thing that matters to us is that humans move in a unique way. Almost every avatar solution can create something that may look like you but generally move. Our view is that humans don’t move the same way, and we want to replicate it,” he said.
The company will use this fund to build a machine learning-based transformer that is responsible for growing teams and creating realistic movements with its avatars.
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