JP Morgan, a major US bank, has provided a $22 million investment in payments start-up Tilio. Besides the bank, Dunamu (operator of South Korea's major cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit) also participated in the start-up.
The raised capital is intended for growth of both the team and services, as the company acquires more customers, such as Unity, Amazon, video game Second Life, NFT marketplace Upland and others. As stated on the company's website, Tilio is a strategic partner of Second Life, making approximately $650 million in in-game payments in its ecosystem.
During an interview, Catherine Porter, head of business development at Tilio, expressed confidence that the traditional economy will soon prosper in virtual reality. The data shows an increase in activity in virtual worlds, as well as a growing need for payment methods between users.
In January 2022, The Verge reported that Philip Rosdale, creator of the original Second Life metaverse, had returned to work as an advisor to help with patenting and decentralising community moderation.
Despite this news, however, KPMG's auditors remain somewhat sceptical about the prospect of major companies entering the virtual reality market quickly - their research showed that telecommunications industry corporations see great potential for the metaverse in the future, but are currently not particularly excited about developments in this area.
The survey results show that the majority of market representatives are optimistic about the prospects of the meta-universe, but only after 2030. More than half of the respondents call the lack of suitable technology the main obstacle to its rapid growth. Moreover, 75% claim that their companies allocate up to 5% of their budget to virtual world projects. Meanwhile, most participants agreed that there will not be a market solution capable of generating widespread enthusiasm until 2027.
