Hadean raises an additional $5m to supercharge the metaverse
London-based metaverse startup, Hadean, has raised $5 million in funding from new Web3, gaming and enterprise global investors to facilitate the rapid build-out of the company’s bleeding-edge metaverse infrastructure solution - a critical component for the creation of immersive vast virtual worlds for training and entertainment and data-driven digital twins for enterprise.
Ericsson Ventures, the venture fund of the leading provider of 5G networks and solutions to service providers and enterprises, as well as Metrea Discovery, VU Venture Partners, Sanctor Capital and Tirta Ventures, have pledged their support for Hadean’s mission to provide the technical toolset that is required for building, running and monetising scalable, interoperable and secure digital environments.
The new funding complements the company’s £30 million Series A investment round, completed in September 2022, which was led by Molten Ventures and joined by Epic Games, 2050 Capital, Alumni Ventures, Aster Capital, Entrepreneur First and InQTel.
The backing comes at a turbulent time for the tech industry, building on Hadean’s continuous success as a trusted cloud-based solutions enabler and demonstrating the company’s proven ability and potential to deliver value to users through its Web 3.0 capabilities.
Hadean CEO, Craig Beddis, said: "We are thrilled to have the support of such a diverse and experienced group of investors. This additional funding will enable us to continue the significant progress we have made off the back of our Series A and expedite the advancement of our cloud-based solutions for the metaverse.
"Our objective is to bridge physical and virtual worlds to improve decision-making, support the creator economy and, ultimately, enhance the quality of life in the real world. We believe that the metaverse's true success and widespread adoption depend on the creators' ability to build their own experiences at scale, using open and robust metaverse-as-a-service technologies.”
Paul McNamara, Vice President of Corporate Development at Ericsson Ventures said: “The Metaverse is one of the most important 5G use cases. Hadean provides a scalable, proven infrastructure to power the future of the metaverse. Together with 5G, Hadean will unlock unlimited possibilities within the metaverse. Ericsson Ventures is excited to support Hadean in its journey to further drive the immersive experience for both enterprises and consumers.”
Hadean’s technology has been used to dynamically power large-scale applications including the EVE Online Aether Wars space battle event in 2020, in partnership with game developers CCP Games, and a city-sized digital replication of Estonia, in partnership with training and simulation specialists CAE - both enabling massive amounts of concurrent users and unlocking new tools for users, creators and decision-makers.
More recently the company also partnered with Connected Places Catapult to develop a next-generation eHighways digital twin simulation to help boost sustainability in modern transportation.
Hadean’s work in support of customers in entertainment and enterprise has been recognised with numerous awards, including ‘Top Cloud, Enterprise or Technology Partner’ and ‘Top B2B or Industrial Initiative’ of the European Metaverse Awards and ‘Outstanding Serious Game for Learning’ of the Military Simulation & Training (MS&T) Awards.
