Hiber’s UGC Metaverse Platform Offers Creators No Code Co-Creation, Improved Graphics and Frictionless Access via Mobile Devices and Web Browsers

February 3, 2022 – Hiber announced that its Metaverse platform HiberWorld is about to undergo a major upgrade with the rollout of a proprietary, lightweight yet powerful, next generation 3D engine as well as use of Web3 technology to give creators and their communities new opportunities.

The platform’s unique 3D engine offers significantly improved graphics and performance, real time co-creation where users can collaborate and play together, and a whole new experience that makes no-code creation fun and accessible to the masses via browsers as well as Apps. Through the use of Web3 technology the platform will, amongst other things, support digital ownership and enable interoperability, where holders of NFTs from partners can unlock and use their assets on HiberWorld.

Apple iPhone users in New Zealand, Australia, and The Philippines are the first to be able to try the new platform which is downloadable in these initial rollout countries via the App Store.

Over the coming weeks, the company plans to rollout the new experience on the web at HiberWorld.com replacing the initial version that has been in testing for around two years.  To date, the community has made more than two million virtual worlds, which already makes HiberWorld one of the largest Metaverse platforms today.

Additional device platforms are scheduled to roll out over the coming months as the company delivers on its goals of bringing creation and the Metaverse to everyone through an open, frictionless no-code experience.

“We believe the Metaverse, just like the Internet, inherently needs to be open, accessible and free for everyone to participate in and express their creativity without any barriers,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO of Hiber AB. “That’s why we have built a web and mobile first, no-code platform that removes all the friction and utilizes Web3 technology to enable interoperability and support digital ownership. We believe the HiberWorld platform has the potential to power hundreds of millions of interconnected virtual worlds, opening the Metaverse to the masses.”

“HiberWorld gives users a new medium with which to create 3D experiences and instantly publish and share them, each becoming a distinct and unique virtual world and presence in the Metaverse,” said Johan Peitz, Chief Product Officer of Hiber AB. ‘’As we roll out the platform over the coming months, we will be announcing a number of partners that will extend both the utility of the platform, and show how we are embracing interoperability and Web3.”

EQT Ventures leads the round to expand the social entertainment network focused on 3D interactive user-generated content (UGC) and self-expression.

June 30, 2021 – Hiber announced that it has taken $15M in Series A funding, led by EQT Ventures. This brings Hiber’s total funding taken to date to almost $20M, giving the company the capital it needs to further accelerate the growth of its social entertainment network, Hiber. New investor CMT Digital also participated in the round, along with existing investors Luminar Ventures, Bumble Ventures, Konvoy Ventures, and SYBO.

Co-founded in 2017 by CEO Michael Yngfors and Chief Innovation Officer, Mattias Johansson, the team originally created HiberWorld (the browser-based version of the Hiber platform) as a place for people to create their own 3D interactive experiences and share them with others, without the need to code. In late 2019, the company reached a major milestone when it released touch creation mode, giving users the ability to make and share their creations using mobile devices with touch screens.

Since then, more than one million experiences have been created, including virtual worlds, 3D hangouts, games, playgrounds, speed-run challenges, interactive science museums, roller coasters, pixel art showcases, and more. Hiber has been growing consistently over the past year, with more users, and higher engagement, and retention.

That, combined with more creators month over month and additional social features, has made Hiber a go-to hangout for the 13+ crowd — as anyone can easily create their own 3D interactive experience and share it with friends instantly. Today, Hiber continues to focus on removing friction between the proposition of self-expression as the newest emerging social, creative medium, and Gen Z’s passion to express themselves in new ways.

“Having EQT Ventures onboard is a huge validation that we are on the right track in growing our business and our platform,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO and Co-founder of Hiber AB. “Their knowledge of the interactive media and digital consumer entertainment spaces is phenomenal and we are already benefiting from their feedback and guidance. We are confident that with them backing us, we will reach our goal of empowering Gen Z to express themselves through creation, even faster.”

“The Hiber team and their accomplishments to date are incredibly impressive,” said Lars Jörnow, Partner at EQT Ventures. “We believe they are perfectly aligned at the focal point of UGC, social entertainment and emerging creator economies. Worldwide, people downloaded 30% more mobile games in the beginning of 2021 than the end of 2019 — spending an unprecedented $1.7 billion per week in Q1 2021. Beyond games, however, there are countless more possibilities across myriad entertainment industries. That’s why we see a huge opportunity for Hiber to become a part of daily life for Gen Z.”

About EQT Ventures

EQT Ventures is a multi-stage VC fund that partners with the most ambitious and boldest founders in Europe and the US. The fund is based in Luxembourg and has investment advisors stationed in Stockholm, Amsterdam, London, San Francisco, Berlin and Paris. Fuelled by some of Europe’s most experienced company builders and scalers, EQT Ventures helps the next generation of entrepreneurs with the capital and hands-on support needed to build global winners. For further information, please visit eqtventures.com

The Accomplishment Triggers the Release of More than 130 Additional Items and Assets for the Community to Use in Their Creations.

Gothenburg, Sweden – May 13, 2021 – Hiber AB, today announced that it has passed its first major milestone with more than 1 million experiences created on the Hiber platform. The milestone marks massive growth over the past year in terms of monthly users, the number and percentage of people that are creating each month, and games created on the platform.
“The road to the first million experiences really began to take shape when we released touch creation on mobile devices in October 2019,” said Mattias Johansson, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Hiber AB. “Since then, we have seen everything grow month over month and the community is constantly asking for more things with which to build. To celebrate the occasion, we are also releasing what we like to call “The Lost Assets” which includes many retired assets that we have used to create with, over the past few years, and we know the community is going to go wild.”

The Hiber platform enables anyone to create their own interactive 3D experiences, virtual worlds and games without the need to code. Users can start creating in seconds and publish their creations in just minutes, enabling them to use games and interactive 3D as a new form of self-expression. Wrapped with social features including chat, comments, likes and followers, Hiber is starting to attract the next wave of creators and influencers as they realize Hiber offers a unique opportunity to interact with fans and followers in meaningful ways. Check out Hiber via web browsers at: www.hiberworld.com

Former Chief Marketing Officer of Discord, and Investment Give Hiber Even More Firepower to Achieve its Business Vision

April 19, 2021 – Hiber AB today announced that Eros Resmini has joined the Hiber Board of Directors and has also invested in the company through The Mini Fund, a venture capital fund where he is the founder & managing partner. Resmini was previously an angel investor prior to becoming a founding executive at San Francisco based start-up Discord where he served as CMO. The new investment coincides with additional follow-on investments from Luminar Ventures, Wild Sloths OY, Dreamcraft Ventures, Konvoy Ventures, GFR Fund, and SYBO, bringing the total funds raised to date to around $4.5 million. All the investors from the company’s Seed round last summer participated in the funding.

“Having Eros join our board, and invest in us is an amazing validation of Hiber’s opportunity and potential to empower Gen Z with a new medium for self-expression through games,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO and Co-founder of Hiber AB. “His experience in scaling Discord from its beginning into the dominant platform for communication amongst gamers, adds enormously to the knowledge base we can now tap into as we grow Hiber.”

“I met the Hiber team in late 2019 and have stayed in touch and followed their progress and execution since,” said Eros Resmini. “They have an exceptional team and their approach allowing anyone to create on mobile is special. We’ve already started collaborating on growth strategies and I’m along for the ride however I can support the company.”

Hiber has been growing consistently over the past year, with more users, and higher engagement and retention. That combined with more creators month over month and additional social features that have made the platform a go-to hangout for the 13+ crowd, are distinguishing Hiber as the platform where anyone can easily make a game and share it with friends instantly. Hiber continues to focus on removing friction between the proposition of self-expression as the newest emerging social, creative medium, and Gen Z’s passion to express themselves in new ways.

Massive Growth and More than 300K Games already in 2020 Lead to Bumble Ventures, SYBO, Konvoy Ventures, and GFR Fund Joining as New Investors

August 20, 2020 – Hiber AB announced the successful completion of a $2.25M financing (20M SEK) Seed round fueled by rapid growth in the platform’s audience and the number of games created on the platform. With no signs of slowing, Hiber’s user base has created over 300,000 games in 2020 as users flock to the platform. The funding round included existing investors Luminar Ventures, and Wild Sloths OY, and added Dreamcraft Ventures, SYBO, Konvoy Ventures, and GFR Fund to the company’s list of backers. Hiber is using the funds to accelerate the development of its growing platform and to make key hires across its product and technology groups. As part of the round, Mathias Gredal Nørvig, CEO of SYBO, the studio that created Subway Surfers, will also be joining Hiber’s Board of Directors.

“We had a lot of interest in the round, which gave us the opportunity to ensure we have the right investors on board at this stage,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO and Co-founder of Hiber AB. “Each of the new investors brings additional expertise and guidance to our business. With regards to GenZ, SaaS platforms, Asian Markets, not to mention the people responsible for the largest mobile game franchise ever created, we feel like we have a really deep bench of knowledge to draw upon.”

Hiber has been growing rapidly since adding a number of highly requested features to its social gaming and entertainment platform, including Multiplay, Chat with Friends, Player Homeworlds (personal game spaces), Playgrounds (public play spaces), and the ability to play and create your own shooter game. Engagement and retention are up exponentially over the past couple of months.

“We looked at Hiber’s numbers and we compared them to top properties in games and Hiber is off the charts, even while they are still building out more of the sticky core features that will drive greater retention and engagement,” said Jesper Soegaard, Founding Partner of Bumble Ventures. “We knew Hiber was a perfect mix of user-generated content, social and games.”

“We’re very excited for Hiber’s vision of making game creation and expression more open and accessible,” said Taylor Hurst, of Konvoy Ventures. “The team’s extensive experience and product strategy put them in a great position to usher in the next generation of game creators and players.”

“Joining the board of Hiber is an opportunity to be a part of something that is changing the way a generation communicates using games,” said Mathias Gredal Nørvig of SYBO. “Our goal is to help Hiber achieve all of the success possible and to support the company through this important time in its evolution.”

“Hiber’s technology is truly impressive,” said Teppei Tsutsui, managing partner and CEO of GFR Fund. “We especially like that users can create and share games easily and instantly using its browser-based technology. We look forward to seeing how the world responds to what they are doing.”

About Luminar Ventures

Luminar Ventures is one of Sweden’s leading seed-stage venture capital funds. The firm aims to provide professional seed stage financing to early stage technology companies throughout Sweden that are looking to disrupt or transform major industries with digital technologies and innovations. But Luminar Ventures provides much more than just capital. They engage with portfolio companies and actively help define, guide and support strategy, growth, teams and organizational, and operational structure, together with entrepreneurs, setting the foundation for future expansion.
www.luminarventures.com

About Bumble Ventures

Bumble Ventures is a Danish venture capital firm founded by Jesper Soegaard and Christian Kirk Rasmussen, co-founders and executives of Better Collective A/S, one of the world’s leading sports betting media groups developing iGaming communities based on user-generated content. Bumble Ventures invests in exceptional founders in the Nordics and helps them architect and execute their ideal escape velocity blueprint and land the best possible Series A round. Bumble Ventures’ first fund from 2019 now includes 15 portfolio companies, among others the ‘500 Startups’ alumni gaming startup, Gamerzclass, and the leading game development studio, Omnigame.
www.bumbleventures.com

About SYBO

SYBO is a Danish mobile games developer founded in 2010, known for the massive mobile hit Subway Surfers (co-developed and published by Kiloo). Danish animation school graduates, Sylvester Rishøj Jensen and Bodie Jahn-Mulliner founded SYBO in 2010 after winning 1st prize for best animation movie in 2009. Their short film gave birth to Subway Surfers which they further co-developed with Kiloo, a Danish games publisher. Today, the game studio is completely self-published and continues to develop regular updates for Subway Surfers. Subway Surfers topped 2019’s most downloaded mobile game in the world. Subway Surfers has been downloaded more than 3 billion times since its launch. To find out more please visit sybogames.com/

About Konvoy Ventures

Konvoy Ventures is a Denver-based venture capital fund investing in the video game space founded by Josh Chapman, Jason Chapman, and Jackson Vaughan. They’ve invested in Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A companies in North America, Europe, and Israel. Since the beginning of 2019, Konvoy Ventures has invested in 17 video game infrastructure companies through its inaugural fund.
www.konvoyventures.com

About GFR Fund

GFR Fund is a SF-based venture capital fund that works with strategic investors to give early-stage technology companies the opportunity to accelerate growth in the digital entertainment sector. To date, GFR Fund has invested in more than 40 companies, including VRChat, Wave, GameClub, Highrise, ProGuides, RTFKT, Edgegap. For more information visit www.gfrfund.com.

Johan Peitz takes on role of VP of Product and Lucas Hadin joins as Director of Business Intelligence.

Johan Peitz takes on role of VP of Product and Lucas Hadin joins as Director of Business Intelligence.

June 2, 2020 – Hiber AB announced some key additions to its product development team with Johan Peitz and Lucas Hadin, both previously at EA. The two games industry veterans further expand the team’s experience and add proven executives with data-driven product development expertise.

Johan Peitz joins Hiber as VP of Product, coming from EA’s Ghost Games where he led the live service for the Need for Speed franchise. He has spent the last two decades making games, from electronic board games to massive mainstream games for Facebook, web, mobile, and consoles. Previous engagements include Head of Product and later Head of Games for mobile chat app Palringo, as well as founding and leading his own games studio Free Lunch Design. He has served in a variety of roles ranging from CTO to Creative Director, to heading product management and games departments, and has a strong background in both social and mobile.

Lucas Hadin has joined Hiber as Director of Business Intelligence, a role that will have him analyzing the company’s data to inform product development and ensure Hiber’s platform is tuned for its audience. He has more than 12 years of experience in data analysis, forecasting, and testing models to turn data into actionable information and drive business growth. Previously he was responsible for business analytics at EA’s Ghost studio. Prior to EA, Lucas worked with a number of companies and clients in data analysis roles, including Toyota, MasterCard, Foxtel, Nestlé and others.

“Johan and Lucas will further solidify our product development team as we move from our MVP status to our commercialization stage in the future,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO and Co-founder of Hiber AB. “While we focus today on building a platform that our community loves, data can give us deeper insights into how to make it even better. Johan and Lucas both have perfect backgrounds for Hiber and we’re confident that they will be great contributors and team members adding greatly to our success as we execute our vision and plan.”

Hiber has been growing rapidly since adding a number of highly requested features to its social gaming and entertainment platform, including Multiplay, Chat with Friends, Player Homeworlds (personal game spaces), Playgrounds (public play spaces), and the ability to play and create your own shooter game. Engagement and retention are up significantly over the past couple of months, and the audience has grown rapidly with no signs of slowing, creating over 100,000 games in the last 6 months.

Growing Social Games Platform Will Soon Let Players Use the New Multiplayer Features and Assets in Their Own Creations.

April 2, 2020 – Hiber AB announced that it has released the Hiber Shooter, a free-to-play third-person shooter game featuring drones. The new arena shooter offers a new genre of games for players on the HiberWorld platform. The company also released Chat With Friends, a new social feature allowing community members that are friends on the platform to start private games that allow them to text chat in real-time while sharing multiplayer game experiences. Both features have been popular requests of the community and reflect Hiber’s goal to deliver a social platform that enables a generation to express themselves through games.

“Chat, the shooter genre, and the enhanced multiplayer experience are all part of providing a rich social experience where our community can create and play on their mobile devices, or desktop PCs without the need to code,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO and Co-founder of Hiber AB. “The team has listened to our growing audience and delivered. We’re constantly tuning the experience and listening to our creators and players so we can keep enhancing their experience and enjoyment on our platform.”

Previously, HiberWorld featured tens of thousands of games made by the community from the platform game genre as well as obstacle courses and hide-n-seek maps. But the expansion to new genres has been in the works for many months and now players can experience the first few maps of the shooter. As players help beta test the underlying Game Kit on which the Hiber Shooter is built, Hiber is gathering feedback so it can release all the assets and game logic for the community to build new shooter games, maps and worlds.

As the new features are rolled out, there are also new avatars being released which players can unlock by earning XP in the shooter game arenas.

With the Majority of Gen Z Interacting with Content Via Mobile, Touch Devices, Hiber Brings Game Creation Tools to the Masses.

October 22, 2019 – Hiber AB announced the release of the beta version of Touch Creation Mode for its HiberWorld game creation platform, allowing people with a mobile touch device to create games from the palm of their hand, anywhere. The new Touch Creation Mode is available now from almost any browser on touch devices at: www.hiberworld.com

Previously, games on HiberWorld needed to be created using a desktop computer, however the fast-growing platform has seen up to 90 percent of its user base accessing the site and games via mobile touch devices. The new mode extends the ability to create games to even more people around the world and makes game creation even more inclusive.

“Bringing intuitive creation tools to the creator generation, on their hardware platform of choice has been a major goal for the team,” said Mattias Johansson, Chief Creative Officer of Hiber AB. “We were already seeing very cool, fun, and exciting games being built on HiberWorld when it was limited to personal computers, but now, we expect the number of HiberWorld creators to explode dramatically.”

“What we are building is more than a game platform,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO of Hiber AB. “We’re giving people another way to communicate and express themselves through games.” With HiberWorld, people don’t need to know how to code in order to become a creator. They just need an idea for a game, and the passion to build it. Anyone can make even more complex games if they have programming skills, but HiberWorld is for everyone, regardless of their skill set. Currently, Hiber has a beta version released, and a roadmap for some pretty jaw-dropping tools that will truly expand the opportunity for creating games and entertainment, while allowing for more complexity as well, all in a browser.

Former Rovio Entertainment Executive to Help Guide Cutting-Edge Browser-Based Game Platform.

September 9, 2019 – Hiber AB announced that game industry veteran Matthew Wilson has joined the company’s board of directors. Wilson participated in the company’s recently announced Seed Round through his investment company, Wild Sloths OY. Prior to starting Wild Sloths, Wilson worked for nine years at the leading Finnish gaming studio Rovio. He exited soon after Rovio’s IPO. His positions included Head of Marketing for the launch of Angry Birds, Head of Third-party Publishing, and Director of Business Development. Wilson has extensive expertise and experience in monetization of mobile games and commercialization of intellectual property rights. In addition, he has an extensive network in the gaming industry. Wilson will bring his industry knowledge and network of connections to aid the company in its mission to remove the barriers to creating and playing games.

“Hiber is poised to really extend the market for making and playing games to hundreds of millions of new people who are currently limited due to programming, financial, and hardware barriers,” said Matthew Wilson. “The team is very impressive, and the beta version of the platform has already proved its inherent virality. It’s going to be big.”

“In just a few weeks since the close of our funding round, we have already brought in additional talented development resources that will accelerate our time to market,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO of Hiber AB. “Adding Matthew to our board is another validation point and his experience and insight are already helping guide the company to greater success.”

In HiberWorld, people don’t need to know how to code in order to become a creator. They just need an idea for a game, and the passion to build it. Anyone can make even more complex games if they have programming skills, but HiberWorld is for everyone, regardless of their skill set. Currently, Hiber has a beta version released, an updated version coming in the next few months, and a roadmap for some pretty jaw-dropping tools that will truly expand the opportunity for creating games and entertainment, while allowing for more complexity as well, all in a browser.

Hiber is leveraging the billions of devices where games and entertainment can currently be consumed and enabling creators to target those devices while building their own entertainment experiences to share with others.

Browser-Based Game Platform Brings Interactive Content to Mobile Devices, PCs, Consoles and Smart TVs Globally.

July 31, 2019 – Hiber AB announced they have closed their Pre-Seed Funding Round led by Stockholm-based Luminar Ventures. The company has a beta version of its browser-based game and entertainment creation platform online at www.HiberWorld.com, where creators and players can already build and share games on the platform today. The funding brings the current total investment in the platform to almost $1 Million and will allow the company to reach its next milestones as it rolls out globally.

“The gaming Industry is the largest, and the fastest growing, entertainment sector globally. The talented team at Hiber is now removing the barriers for anyone to create, share and play their own, and each other’s, games directly in the web-browser, which will enable an entire new and giant UGC vertical to emerge. We have seen what the democratization of content creation has done to other sectors, and the Gaming Industry will follow suit. Just faster, bigger and more viral,” said Jacob Key, Founding Partner at Luminar Ventures.

“We’re creating a gaming and entertainment platform where people can play and experience personalized content or create their own, together with friends, and without the need to code, directly in an Internet browser,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO of Hiber AB. “The Seed Funding is a proof point to us that we are on the right track and that our plans have been validated by some very accomplished investors.”

In HiberWorld, people don’t need to know how to code in order to become a creator. They just need an idea for a game, and the passion to build it. Anyone can make even more complex games if they have programming skills, but HiberWorld is for everyone, regardless of their skill set. Currently, Hiber has a beta version released, an updated version coming in the next few months, and a roadmap for some pretty jaw-dropping tools that will truly expand the opportunity for creating games and entertainment, while allowing for more complexity as well, all in a browser.

Hiber is leveraging the billions of devices where games and entertainment can currently be consumed and enabling creators to target those devices while building their own entertainment experiences to share with others.

About Luminar

Luminar is a $60M Swedish based venture capital fund focused on early stage startups with global scale and ambitions. Founded by experienced entrepreneurs and angel investors Magnus Bergman, Jacob Key, and Linda Höglund, Luminar provides early stage capital, network and hands-on company-building support to leading startup teams throughout Sweden helping them build the next global success stories.