Introducing Tommy Parallel! A collaboration by Tommy Hilfiger, Hiber, and Ready Player Me.
We have been working closely with the Tommy Hilfiger team to build out an immersive experience using Hiber3D that allows fashion lovers to explore a new dimension of dressing in physical and digital worlds – featuring the ‘Limitless’ designs crafted by The Fabricant!
We built the experience using the Hiber3D Development Kit which Tommy Parallel embedded directly on their website to leverage their existing audience. Simultaneously we connected the experience to our HiberWorld platform – a network of almost 6M interconnected worlds.
The bar is now raised for digital commerce in the fashion industry and we cannot wait to see what unfolds next.
Hiber and Smash Into Pieces Collaborate to Pioneer a 3D Music World, Powered by Hiber3D
Revolutionizing Music Engagement: Hiber and Smash Into Pieces Unveil Arcadia, the First 3D Music World Powered by Hiber3D
Gothenburg, Sweden – June 27th, 2023 – Hiber, creators of 3D web tech Hiber3D and popular virtual experience platform HiberWorld, in partnership with the Swedish cinematic rock group, Smash Into Pieces, today announce the release of Arcadia, a pioneering virtual music world that intends to revolutionize audience engagement in the music industry.Visit Arcadia
Hiber3D, which released last month, is built to accelerate the adoption of the 3D web by unlocking the potential for artists, brands, and creators to build a virtual presence quickly and easily. Hiber3D features easy-to-use creator tools that cater to all levels of expertise, including a no-code tool for consumers and the Hiber3D Development Kit (HDK) for professionals. Virtual worlds created with Hiber3D can be embedded directly onto any website, and can simultaneously connect to nearly 5 million worlds on the HiberWorld platform, while the lightweight Hiber3D engine can target all devices without compromising on performance or quality.
Smash Into Pieces, the Swedish rock group renowned for their fusion of futuristic aesthetics and apocalyptic themes, as well as their cinematic mini-series “ARCADIA WORLD,” consistently push the boundaries to captivate their global fan base. Now, in collaboration with Hiber, Smash Into Pieces invite their dedicated ‘SMASH HEADS’ fan-base to experience this first-of-its-kind 3D music world.
With the power of Hiber3D, fans of Smash Into Pieces will be transported into Arcadia , an immersive world designed to reflect the band’s dynamic style and aesthetic. Arcadia serves as an interactive hub where fans can engage with the band, their music, artistry, and merchandise as well as curated gamified experiences that can be used to unlock exclusive access or items. For this release, eagle eyed fans of Smash Into Pieces will be able to access a teaser of an upcoming single located somewhere in Arcadia.
“How we might connect with each other in the future has been a huge theme in our band, and this project with Hiber lets us bring the Arcadia World concept to life,” said Chris Adam, the lead singer of Smash Into Pieces. “This is a new way to push ourselves creatively and engage our amazing fans, and we’re pumped to see everyone in Arcadia soon!”
In addition to the 3D music world, this collaboration will introduce “verch” – or virtual merch, a concept that establishes an entirely new revenue stream for artists. Verch allows fans to enhance their digital identities by owning unique and collectible digital items associated with their favorite artists, redefining the fan experience and taking brand affinity into the 3D web. By pioneering this integration of music and commerce within the 3D web, Hiber3D not only provides an opportunity to transform fan engagement, but also creates a new platform for brand recognition and revenue generation. Visitors to Arcadia will be able to purchase Smash Into Pieces verch for their avatars which they can then use in over 8000+ platforms and apps as they move their identity through the interoperable 3D web.
“This collaboration with Smash Into Pieces signifies a major milestone for music artists. By harnessing the power of Hiber3D, musicians can forge direct connections with their audience and unlock new avenues for engagement and monetization,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO of Hiber. “At the same time, this collaboration revolutionizes the traditional music landscape by allowing fans to access their favorite musicians in a new way. It’s a paradigm shift that empowers artists to take control of their own brand and offers fans an unparalleled level of intimacy and interaction.”
By integrating the band’s artistic vision with Hiber’s cutting-edge technology, this collaboration marks a monumental milestone as the first-ever implementation of a 3D immersive music showroom which has the potential to redefine the music industry’s digital landscape, allowing fans and artists to transcend traditional experiences and explore uncharted territories of entertainment.
The Swedish cinematic rock outfit SMASH INTO PIECES, have since the release of their third album ‘Rise And Shine’, grown to become a well known international brand within the rock community. Being part of the force surrounding the group since the beginning, their mystical leader and apocalyptic looking drummer APOC is probably the most eye-catching member of the group.
Earlier this year the group participated in the Swedish version of Eurovision, and won their sub-competition and went straight to the finals where they ended up placing third! With ‘Six Feet Under’ selling platinum in Sweden in less than 12 weeks and national radio picking up on the track, SMASH announced they are going to continue the story of ARCADIA. In April of 2023, they released the first episode ‘The Tide’. Now the time has come for the group to follow up the recent success with the second episode of the third ARCADIA season.. ‘FLOW’!
Ready Player Me’s New Monetization Tools Help Developers Grow Revenue Through In-App Purchases
Initial Launch To Be Accessible For Those With Alpha Access; Starting Today, Developers Can Register Interest For Public Launch On Ready Player Me’s Website
First Premium Avatar Collection, The Outer Kingdoms, Is Now Available For Sale Directly on HiberWorld, Wink, and Omlet Arcade
New York, NY (June 15, 2023) – Ready Player Me, the world’s leading avatar platform, today released alpha access to a new suite of monetization tools and premium avatar collections. These innovations let app creators tap into the $100+ billion dollar digital goods economy by selling avatar skins, clothing, and items directly in their apps. Alpha partners utilizing the tools include Hiber, Wink, and Omlet Arcade; other Ready Player Me developers can apply for beta access to the tools here.
“Partnering with Ready Player Me enables us to move our monetization strategy forward by delivering embeddable 3D commerce experiences to brands, artists and creators,” said Michael Yngfors, Co-Founder & CEO of Hiber. “We’ve seamlessly worked with their new tools and APIs to launch an in-world storefront in HiberWorld for The Outer Kingdoms collection. Now, any brand or artist can use HiberWorld to easily create their own 3D commerce experience for avatar outfits and reach millions of users.”
As part of this alpha launch with selected partners, Ready Player Me is opening access to its new Asset Manager, Transaction API, and their first sellable avatar collections.
The Asset Manager let’s developers create, upload, and publish outfits for sale directly in their app. Additionally published assets will soon be available for sale throughout the entire Ready Player Me Network, giving developers the ability to sell cross-game.
The Transactions API powers transactions and revenue sharing, giving developers the ability to build storefronts — either through app interfaces or directly in virtual stores that can be visited in-world.
The first avatar collection, The Outer Kingdoms, is available for sale directly through partner storefronts. The launch partners includeHiberWorld, Wink, and Omlet Arcade. Additional avatar collections will be launched on an ongoing basis.
The in-app purchase market in 2022 was a staggering $141.75B, and expected to compound yearly. With much of this spend going to avatars, developers increasingly need better ways to monetize through skin, clothing, and item sales. These new features are built API-first, with native integration into game engines such as Unity or Unreal, allowing broad access and saving development time and resources. Through Ready Player Me’s interoperable network, assets will achieve peak cross-game potential through their utility in not one, but over thousands of different apps and games.
“Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Roblox have proved the game economy of the future is powered by avatar monetization,” said Timmu Toke, Co-Founder & CEO of Ready Player Me. “Until now, unless you were a AAA studio, you couldn’t take advantage of the avatar economy. Now, we’ve made it possible for every developer, regardless of size, to create and sell avatar skins and items in-game, and across thousands of connected experiences that integrate with our platform.”
The alpha launch is available to select Ready Player Me developers. To apply for future beta access, developers need to apply using this form [FORM LINK]. Developers who have not yet signed up with Ready Player Me can do so at readyplayer.me/developers.
Faraway and Hiber Showcase the Power of Interoperability as Hiber3D Creators Can Now Take Their User-Generated Maps into Different Game Worlds
Hiber3D Creators will be able to export and showcase their maps in Mini Royale: Nations as well as a variety of other metaverse experiences through this collaboration with Faraway
MIAMI & GOTHENBURG – Faraway, developers of Mini Royale: Nations and upcoming strategy game Serum City, announced a partnership with Hiber, creators of 3D web tech Hiber3D and popular virtual experience platform HiberWorld, that will let creators build their own worlds and experiences to be used in the Faraway Web3 gaming ecosystem and beyond.
To start, this partnership will allow Hiber3D creators to export their maps and environments to be instantly playable as game maps inside of Mini Royale: Nations, a popular Web3 first person shooter launched in December 2021. Once this integration is live it will allow Faraway and HiberWorld to share the same maps and worlds, with the eventual goal of scaling to many more games and experiences. With data available on the blockchain, other developers will be able to easily access and tap into the same creator ecosystem, and creators will have the potential to monetize their content in many more interoperable experiences.
Faraway has spent the last year focusing on interoperability as a defining feature of Web3 games and on user-generated content (UGC) as a source of evergreen content for these games. Following a recent partnership with avatar creation platform Ready Player Me to allow for two-way interoperability between both companies’ in-game avatars, Faraway also launched a UGC platform where players can create and sell their own interoperable avatars to be used within thousands of virtual worlds. Faraway now expands support for UGC beyond avatars through custom maps that can be built using Hiber3D’s no-code or code creation tools and seamlessly imported into Faraway games in addition to HiberWorld.com.
HiberWorld users have created millions of interactive experiences ranging from platformers and virtual hangout spaces, to 3D recreations of famous landmarks. Hiber has also partnered with Ready Player Me already enabling interoperable avatars in these worlds, including avatars created by the Mini Royale: Nations UGC community. This partnership gives Hiber’s creator community more utility in the worlds they create in an ever-expanding number of applications outside the core of HiberWorld. It will also include new Web3 monetization systems to help creators monetize their worlds as their experiences are leveraged by more and more game studios and players.
Co-founders Michael Yngfors, ex-PlayStation, and Mattias Johansson, ex-DigitasLBi, launched Hiber in 2017 to accelerate the adoption of the 3D web by enabling brands, artists, musicians, influencers and creators to easily build, manage and monetize their own virtual world presence. With close to 5 million user-generated 3D worlds built, HiberWorld has become a hub for creativity by empowering users with seamless tools for world-building. At the same time, the recent launch of Hiber3D enables over 17 million web developers worldwide to easily create interconnected virtual worlds and publish them anywhere.
“This partnership with Faraway showcases the power and potential of interoperability,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO of Hiber. “Through this collaboration, Hiber3D creators can now expand their reach into the Faraway ecosystem and unlock new possibilities for their content, opening up new paths for gameplay in ways creators control.”
Faraway launched Mini Royale: Nations in 2021 as the first live multiplayer game to incorporate the Solana blockchain. Founders Alex Paley and Dennis Zdonov, former executives at Glu Mobile and Scopely, have expanded the company’s focus beyond its own game development to creating an ecosystem of games and products powered by Web3, interoperability, and user-generated content (and providing developer and creator tools for other game studios to do the same through the Faraway Developer Platform).
“The ability for player-owned assets to exist and have utility outside of their original game experience opens the doors for a totally new type of game design and economy. We’re incredibly excited to work with Hiber to integrate thousands of user-created maps and experiences made completely externally from our own team,” said Faraway co-founder, Alex Paley.
Hiber Unveils Hiber3D Empowering Web Developers to Accelerate the Next Generation of the Web
Introducing Hiber3D and HDK (Hiber3D Development Kit), a Tech Stack and Developer Kit to Enable Brands, Artists, Creators, and Developers to Build a Virtual 3D Web Presence Easily and Quickly
Hiber3D has already been put to effective use by its partners, including anotherblock and iamrunbox, who created captivating brand experiences that were directly integrated into their websites.
”Our collaboration with Hiber confirmed the power of embracing immersive experiences to engage with our customers and bring our brand to life,” said Ida Malm of iamrunbox. “With seamless integration into our website during a major campaign, the process was remarkably straightforward. Moreover, linking this experience to HiberWorld opened up a whole new audience for us, expanding our reach.”
Hiber is planning to announce several major brand partnerships in the coming months, with a strong emphasis on commerce and web3 as key areas of focus for its continued growth and development.
“With Hiber3D, we’re giving creators of all skill levels the tools they need to build, manage, and monetize their own virtual presence on the emerging 3D web,” said Michael Yngfors, CEO of Hiber. “With open access to the full suite of browser-based technology, we believe Hiber3D is set to accelerate the adoption of the 3D web and usher in a new era of immersive 3D experiences.”
Hiber3D is now available to developers and professionals looking to participate in the 3D web through the HDK
Hiber Partners With Ready Player Me to Bring Selfie-Based 3D Avatars to the HiberWorld Platform
Players with Customized Avatars Can Explore the Metaverse via HiberWorld
Hiber – the creator of HiberWorld, an open, free-to-use metaverse platform – today announced their partnership with 3D avatar metaverse platform Ready Player Me. Through this joint venture, Ready Player Me’s millions of users can now utilize their customizable 3D avatars in the user-created virtual landscapes of HiberWorld.
HiberWorld allows users to seamlessly create games and experiences across millions of connected worlds on their desktop computers and mobile devices. The latest collaboration with Ready Player Me will allow users to explore new environments in the metaverse under one identity and create virtual experiences for their avatars. In addition, they will be able to immerse themselves in the platform’s various worlds and games including 3D hangouts, challenges, interactive science museums, roller coasters, art showcases, and more.
Ready Player Me provides users with a system to create custom 3D avatars by simply taking a selfie and allows further enhancement options through accessorizing with virtual wearables. After previously establishing more than 2,500+ partnerships with companies including VRChat, Somnium Space, Spatial, and The Nemesis, Ready Player Me has become an established metaverse platform. This includes closing a Series A funding round of $13 million for further global expansion at the end of 2021. Earlier this year, the avatar platform closed an additional round of funding, bringing their total raised to $22.5 million. “From the minute we sat down with our friends at Ready Player Me, we recognized how appealing their customized avatars could be in our HiberWorld. This integration creates a unique and dynamic metaverse experience,” said Hiber CEO, Michael Yngfors.
Ready Player Me CEO, Timmu Tõke added, “We have always valued the power of creativity and we love that now, with this integration, users have the ability to create their own Ready Player Me personal avatars and bring them into a world they have created themselves or into a number of other virtual experiences created by HiberWorld users.”
Metaverse Platform Hiber Releases NFT Gallery
Gothenburg, Sweden – June 21, 2022 – Hiber, a platform transforming any website into an interconnected metaverse presence, today announced the release of its NFT Gallery, a tool which allows anyone to view their NFT collections in the metaverse using any device with a web browser. The new feature will provide the opportunity for owners to see any NFTs in their possession in one place.
The new gallery enables users to enter any Ethereum wallet address containing NFTs to nftgallery.mv, where Hiber’s technology will procedurally generate a 3D art gallery in the metaverse within a matter of seconds. Users can then explore the gallery in an avatar form, while accessing their NFTs to learn more about them, which can also be viewed on Opensea. The custom gallery URL can subsequently be shared and used by anyone and shared across social media.
To demonstrate the power of this tool, Hiber has identified more than 70 wallet addresses belonging to A-List celebrities, including those owned by Kevin Hart, Justin Bieber, DJ Khaled, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Post Malone, Paris Hilton, Mike Tyson, and Snoop Dogg, and has generated galleries of some of the most sought after NFT collections in the world. For anyone who has ever wanted to peruse NFT collections belonging to massive Hollywood stars, the chance is now here. The celebrity galleries can be accessed here.
Michael Yngfors, CEO and Co-Founder of Hiber shared his insights on the NFT Gallery, commenting: “We take great pride in creating a means whereby users can fully tap into NFT wallets in a way that hasn’t been done before.” He further added, “With the celebrity addresses that we have added to the gallery, fans now have the opportunity to be part of the experience of being able to see the NFTs that their idols own.”
The Gallery is not in any way endorsed in any way by any of the celebrities that own the wallets, but simply serves to illustrate the open nature of both Web3 and blockchain technology, where anyone can tour a celebrity’s gallery for free.
Metaverse platform HiberWorld set for major upgrade with new cross-platform 3D engine and Web3 tech
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.”
Metaverse platform HiberWorld set for major upgrade with new cross-platform 3D engine and Web3 tech
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.”
Hiber Raises $15M USD Series A Funding
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
HiberWorld Hits 1 Million Experiences Milestone
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
Eros Resmini Joins Hiber Board of Directors as Social Platform Receives Additional Funding
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.
Hiber Raises $2.25M Seed Round for Creative Content Platform
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.
Hiber Adds Game Industry Veterans
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.
Hiber Launches New Shooter Game and In-Game Chat With Friends
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.
Hiber Launches Touch Creation Mode
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.
Matthew Wilson Joins Hiber Board of Directors
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.
Hiber Announces Pre-Seed Funding for Game and Entertainment Platform
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.